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DIVERSIONS 


OF    A 


DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY 


DIVERSIONS 


OF  A 


DIPLOMAT   IN   TURKEY. 

BY 

SAMUEL     S.     COX. 

Late  American  Minister  to  Turkey. 


Author  of  "Buckeye  Abroad,"  "Eight  Years  in  Congress,"   "Win. 
TER  Sunbeams,"   "Why  we  Laugh,"   "Free  Land  and  Free 
Trade,"   "Arctic  Sunbeams,"    "Orient   Sunbeams," 
"Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation," 
"Isles  of  the  Princes;  or,  the  Pleas- 
ures OF  Prinkipo,"    etc. 


'The  wealth  of  shifting  hues  that  Hes 

In  Eastern  Earth's  unfathomed  heart. 
For  every  season's  change  supplies 
A  counterpart." 


NEW   YORK: 

CHARLES  L.  WEBSTER  &  CO. 
1887. 


Copyrighted,  1887, 

CHARLES  L.  WEBSTER  &  Ca 

(A//  rights  reserved.) 


FKESS  OF 

JENKINS  &  McCOWAN, 

224-228  Cektre  St. 


PREFACE. 


The  title  of  this  volume  indicates  its  scope  and  spirit.  It  has 
little  to  do  with  the  art  of  Diplomacy.  It  is  a  Diversion  because  it 
turns  aside  from  that  esoteric  art.  Out  of  the  channels  of  the 
•diplomatic  movements  of  Constantinople,  and  aloof  from  the  cares 
and  studies  of  the  Author's  ministrations  in  the  East,  it  seeks  to 
impart  something  of  the  relaxation,  if  not  the  amusement,  which 
furnished  the  pastime  of  a  sojourn  of  unequaled  refreshment  and 
entertainment.  ♦ 

The  contrarieties  of  this  experience  furnish  abundant  sources 
of  humor,  to  those  who  regard  the  essence  of  that  subtle  element 
as  the  inversion  of  human  nature,  in  its  outre  and  peculiar  phases. 
How  the  observation  of  that  human  nature,  under  these  strange 
conditions,  affected  the  Author's  own  sense  and  associations,  he 
has  is  these  pages,  assisted  by  the  artist,  essayed  to  portray.  But 
it  must  be  remembered  that  what  would  seem  ludicrous,  odd  and 
funny  to  an  American,  might  not  seem  so  to  an  Ottoman,  a  Greek, 
an  Armenian,  a  Bulgarian  or  any  of  the  other  Oriental  peoples. 

Constantinople  is  the  capital  of  the  Ottoman  empire.  It  is  an 
empire  of  vast  dimensions.  It  is  the  seat  of  the  central  government. 
Its  people  are  of  every  race  and  nationality.  It  has  seventy  odd 
dialects.     It  is  composite  beyond  any  other  capital. 

Upon  these  diverse  races  the  Holy  Ghost  was  outpoured  at 
Pentecost.  They  were  anciently  governed  by  Roman  and  Byzan- 
tine rulers.  This  capital  was,  and  is  now,  the  genius  of  the  Mos- 
lem faith,  whose  pulsations  are  potential  in  three  continents.  Even 
the  distant  regions  now  being  opened  in  Africa,  from  Zanzibar 


VI  PREFACE. 

to  the  mouths  of  the  Congo,  and  from  the  Cape  to  the  Atlas 
Mountains,  feel  the  throbbing  of  this  faith.  It  has  affected  and 
still  affects  the  Hebrews  in  their  wanderings  and  destiny.  It  has 
yet  much  to  do  with  Christianity,  as  well  by  its  rule  over  Palestine 
as  by  its  control  over  the  Churches  of  the  empire.  These  wide 
relations  give  added  interest  to  this  remarkable  city,  its  people 
and  government. 

Constantinople  was  the  supreme  seat  of  the  ancient  Christian 
councils,  and  the  theatre  of  the  most  remarkable  and  wasting  wars. 
Its  changes  are  as  startling  as  its  sieges  and  romances.  Its  name 
recalls  contests  with  the  races  of  Greece  and  Central  Asia,  and  with 
the  chivalry  which  gave  its  glamour  to  the  Crusades.  Where 
is  there  a  spot  more  vital  with  interest  and  glory  ? 

Some  of  the  chapters  in  this  volume  are  dedicated  to  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  races  which  were  once  enlightened  and  the  religion  once 
expounded  by  Chrysostom,  Gregory  and  Athanasius.  Their 
candlesticks  have  fallen  and  their  lights  are  extinguished.  They 
need  to  be  re-illumined.  The  efforts  made  by  the  Christian 
teacher  and  missionary  will  show  how  far  this  enlightenment  may 
partake  of  its  early  splendor.  The  American  missionary  is  fore- 
most in  this  work.  The  West  is  supplying  the  East  with  the 
brightness  of  that  torch  which  the  East  gave  to  the  West  many 
centuries  ago.  Along  with  the  Living  Word,  which  informs  and 
inspires  our  better  nature,  is  that  subtle  knowledge  which  the 
West  is  returning  to  the  East  concerning  chemistry  and  other 
sciences.  These  elements  of  physical  philosophy,  which  came  out 
of  the  Orient,  have  a  reflux,  with  ever-widening  applications  from 
the  Occident,  and  are  opening  revelations  beyond  all  the  marvels 
of  Arabic  alchemy  and  astrology. 

The  first  part  of  this  volume  concerns  a  sojourn  of  the  Author 
among  the  diplomats  of  the  Upper  and  Lower  Bosporus,  and  his 
observations  in  and  around  the  city. 

The  second  part  undertakes  to  deal  with  the  ever-recurring 
Eastern  question.     Recent  events  in  Asia,  Africa  and   Europe, 


PREFACE.  Vll 

especially  in  Egypt,  Armenia,  Bulgaria  and  East  Roumelia,  give 
to  this  discussion  an  interest  worthy  of  statesman-like  study.  L 
have  eliminated  from  it  all  minor  details,  with  a  view  to  the  general 
and  permanent  phases  of  the  question  as  it  affects  the  races  and 
religions  which  have  Constantinople  as  a  centre  and  the  horizon 
of  the  world  as  a  circumference. 

In  a  volume  of  this  kind  it  is  not  intended  to  make  either  a 
diagnosis  of  the  disease  with  which  the  Orient'  is  said  to  be 
afflicted,  or  an  analysis  of  the  government  which  theoretically  is 
almost  perfect,'  The  divisions  of  the  empire  for  demonstrative  pur- 
poses are,  first,  into  vilayets,  governed  by  a  vizier.  These  are  subdi- 
vided into  sandjaks,  each  under  the  rule  of  a  pasha.  There  are  other 
subordinate  divisions.  There  is  much  fluctuation  in  the  political 
divisions  of  Turkey,  but  there  is  more  of  the  old  spirit  of  municipal 
freedom  inherited  from  the  ancient  Arab,  Greek  and  Roman  rule 
than  the  political  and  speculative  philosophy  about  Turkey  recog- 
nizes. It  is  this  spirit  which  gives  permanency  to  government  in 
the  Orient. 

While  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  the  Turkish  empire  has 
been  failing  during  the  last  three  or  four  decades,  yet  if  the  reader 
will  take  the  changes  of  two  centuries,  especially  from  the  time 
when  the  Turkish  power  menaced  Vienna,  there  has  been  a  great 
declension.  At  the  taking  of  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  1453  the  Otto- 
man empire  had  reached  its  acme.  Those  limits  it  can  never  reach 
again.  Perhaps  no  country  will  ever  boast,  in  our  day,  of  such  a 
quick  and  splendid  conquest  as  the  Ottoman  made  over  the  Orient,, 
including  the  Balkans  and  the  Danube. 

Has  the  reader  ever  pondered  upon  what  a  wide  jurisdiction 
the  Sultan  once  exercised  and  what  he  still  has  ?  It  is  upon 
the  boundary  line  between  three  continents.  Within  its  dominions 
are  the  most  celebrated  cities  of  classical  and  sacred  history,  or, 
at  least,  they  have  been  comprised  within  this  dominion.  The 
sites  of  Carthage,  Memphis,  Nineveh,  Tyre,  Ephesus,  Tarsus, 
Babylon  and   Palmyra;  the   cities    of    Alexandria,    Jerusalem, 


viii  PREFACE. 

Damascus,  Smyrna,  Nicaea,  Broussa,  Athens,  Philippi  and  Adrian- 
ople;  and  those  other  celebrated  cities,  Algiers,  Cairo,  Mecca, 
Medinah,  Bassorah,  Bagdad  and  Belgrade — all  delivered  their 
golden  keys  to  the  Sultan,  as  their  Suzerain,  The  Mediterranean, 
the  Sea  of  Marmora  and  the  Black  and  Red  seas  saw  the  Turkish 
Crescent,  and  their  waves  were  stilled  before  Turkish  valor  and 
seamanship.  What  mountains  and  ranges  this  empire  compre- 
hended !  The  Atlas  and  the  Caucasus,  Athos,  Sinai,  Ararat, 
Carmel,  Taurus,  Ida,  Olympus,  Ossa,  Pelian  and  Haemus,  and 
the  Carpathian  and  Balkan  ranges — these  were,  or  are  yet,  a  part 
of  this  remarkable  realm.  It  embraced  the  most  opulent  and 
lovely  regions  of  the  world.  It  is  full  of  historic  memories,  redo- 
lent of  classical  mythology  and  sacred  to  the  memory  of  pro- 
phets and  apostles  who  pursued  their  glorious  paths  through  these 
vast  dominions.  And  yet — and  yet  all  bowed  in  the  end  before 
the  nomadic  Seljukian  Turk,  who  came  out  of  the  recesses  of 
Asia  and  elevated  the  Crescent  and  Star  by  his  energetic  zealotry 
in  religion,  his  genius  in  polity,  and  his  invincible  force  in  war. 

Samuel  S.  Cox. 
New   York,  September  jo,  1887. 


DEDICATION 

BY 

FEFtisdiissioisr. 


To  His  Majesty  Abdul  Hamid  II., 

Emperor  of  the  Ottomans,  etc. ,  etc. 

During  nearly  two  years  of  sojourn  at  the  capital  of  your  empire 
I  was  not  unobservant  of  its  situation  as  a  grand  entrepot  of  com- 
merce as  well  as  of  its  scenic  enchantments.  During  that  time,  and 
while  near  Your  Majesty  as  the  American  Minister,  it  was  my 
special  gratification  to  receive  conspicuous  marks  of  your  friend- 
ship for  my  country,  and  I  may  add,  if  it  please  you,  for  my  wife  and 
myself.  These  evidences  of  your  regard  have  followed  me  home 
and  into  another  sphere  of  public  life.  Since  my  return  to  America 
I  have  often  pondered  over  my  reminiscences  in  the  Orient. 
Among  all  their  delights,  none  are  more  alluring  than  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  relation  which  I  sustained  at  your  capital. 

I  have  observed  the  complex  form  of  the  government  or  gov- 
ernments of  your  empire,  and  admired  the  skill,  vigilance  and 
probity  which  you  brought  to  bear  in  the  reconciliation  of  all 
interests  and  the  maintenance  of  your  authority,  not  only  as  a  civil 
ruler  but  as  the  head  of  the  great  Faith  of  the  Orient. 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  endeavored  to  do  credit  to  my 
observation  by  never  omitting  to  be  just  to  your  efforts  for  the 
maintenance  of  peace,  and  your  forbearance  and  moderation  in 
promoting  harmony  between  other  governments  and  your  own. 

I  therefore  have  asked  the  privilege — so  kindly  accorded — of 

■dedicating  this  volume  to  Your  Majesty,  as  an  evidence  of  the 

regard  which  I  cherish,  as  well  for  your  public  virtues  as  for 

your  private  character. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

With  the  highest  respect, 

Samuel  S.  Cox. 
New  York  City,  September  jo,  1887. 


t        •    '       •         •     •  •  *  • 

I    .        .  >^         .......  » 


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xfi 


ABDUL  HAMID  H 

PRESENT  SULFAN. 


CONTENTS'. 


PAGE 

Preface v. 

Dedication  in  English-^  )  by  permission — vL 

Dedication  in  Turkish—  S  to  the  Sultan vii. 

CHAPTER  I. 
Arrival  at  Constantinople .  ^ 1-6 

CHAPTER  II. 

Waiting  for  the  Reception — Obsequies  of  General  Grant — ^The  Lega- 
tion— Residence — The  Salemlik  Music 7-10 

CHAPTER  III. 
Reception  by  the  Sultan , xi-26 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Sultan  at  Prayers— Salemlik 27-35 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Sultan  in  his  Yildiz  Kiosk — Presentation  of  American  Books 3^45 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Social  Life  at  Constantinople — A  State  Dinner  and  Decorations 46-62 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Diversion  in  America  over  Diplomacy  in  Turkey 63-75 

CHAPTER  Vni. 
Compendium  of  Ottoman  History 76-85 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Origin,  Power  and  Fall  of  the  Janizaries 86-95 

CHAPTER  X. 
Salient  Features  in  Ottoman  Empire — French  Influence. 96-102 

CHAPTER  XI. 
The  last  four  Sultans — Incidents  of  their  Reigns 103-111 

xiU 


Xiv  CONTENTS, 

CHAPTER  Xn. 
The  Latin  Conquest  of  Omstantmople 112-119 

CHAPTER  Xm. 
The  Capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks 120-135 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Upper  Bosporus — Diverskms  at  Therapia. 136-153 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Possihilitics  and  ActnaKtifs  of  Petroleum — American  Interests 154^-174 

CHAPTER  XVL 
Chazacteristics  of  Races  and  Classes  in  Turkey 175-186 

CHAPTER  XVn. 

The  Jews  of  Turkey , 187-207 

CHAPTER  X\T[L 
Rdigkms  of  ti>e  East — The  Caliphate  and  its  Qmseqoenoes 208-217 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Rdigions  of  the  East — Moslem 218-231 

CHAPTER  XX, 
The  Orthodox  Greek  Churdi — Its  Origin 232-255 

CHAPTER  XXL 

The  Orthodox  Greek  Church— Its  Architecture,  Synods,  Progress, 

Condition  and  Severance  from  Rome. 256-277 

CHAPTER  XXn. 

The  Latin  Churdi — The  Armenian-Catholic — The  Armenian  Grego- 
rian Churches — Bulgarian  and  Other  Churches 278-29} 

CHAPTER  XXm. 
American  ^fissions  in  Turkey — Their  Magnitude — Obstacles  and  Rights  291-303 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Turkish  Language  and  literature 304-314 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
Turkish  Wt  and  Humor 3»5-326 

CHAPTER  XXVL 
Stories  of  the  East— Their  Moralities 327-347 


CONTEXTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Among  the  Cadis — Mahometan  Justice — Humorous  Illustrations 348-363 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

The  Dragoman's  Story — "Which  of  the  Two,  the  Bad  or  the  Stupid 

Man? " 364-372 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Diversions  at  the  Legation 373-382 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

The  Lower  Bosporus — The  Cosmopolitan  and  Kaleidoscopic  City — 

Scenes  at  the  Bridge 383-  401 

CHAPTER  XXXL 

The  Caiques  of  the  Bosporus . .   , 402-416 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
Dogs  of  Constantinople — A  Canine  Republic— Fights 4^7-433 

CHAPTER.  XXXIII. 
Diversions  in  Pera 434-451 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
Scenes  and  Diversions  in  Stamboul 452-472 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 
Scenes  and  Diversions  around  the  City  of  Stamboul 473-485 

CHAPTER  XXXVL 
Democratic- Republican  Features  in  Turkey 486-497 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Turkish  Time — Fasting  and  Festal  Days 498-51 1 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 
The  Harem — Innovations — Dresses  and  Incidents 512-529 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

The  Eunuch  and  other  Incidents  of  the  Harem 530-540 

CHAPTER  XL. 
Slavery — Its  Conditions  and  Mitigations 541-544 

CHAPTER  XLI. 
i'enfant  Terrible  Turk— Education  of  Children 545-56i 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XLII. 
Marriage  of  Moslems — Mahometan  Marriages  and  Their  Consequences  562-580 

CHAPTER  XLIII. 
American  Institutions  in  Turkey  -  Our  Schools  and  Colleges 581-597 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 
Contrariety  of  Opinion  about  the  Fate  of  Turkey 598-608 

CHAPTER  XI,V. 
Resources  of  Turkey — Taxation — Brigandage  and  Finances 609-621 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 

Is  Reform  possible  in  Turkey  ? — Railroads  of  the  Empire  in  Existence 

and  Projected 622-632 

CHAPTER  XLVII. 

Oriental  Problems — Prince  Alexander  and  the  Insurrection  in  Bulgaria  633-641 

CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

Balkan  Peninsula  ;  Roumania  ;  Servia — Preparations  for  fighting — 

Greece — Its  King  and  Queen 642-657 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 

Bulgaria  and  its  Capital — Russia  in  the  Conflict 658-666 

CHAPTER  L. 

Fighting  between  Servia  and  Bulgaria — Prince  Alexander 667-675 

CHAPTER  LI. 

Pvcsignation  as  Minister — Return  Home— Prince  Ferdinand — Fresh 

Events — Horoscope  of  the  East— Conclusion 676-685 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Steel  Portrait  of  Author Frontispiece. 

Map  of  the  Bosporus ix 

City  of  Constantinople x 

Dedication  to  the  Sultan  in  Turkish xii 

Portrait  of  the  Sultan  on  Horseback  (colored) xiii 

United  States  Summer  Legation  at  Therapia 5 

Palace  of  Dolma-Bagtche 13 

Gate  of  Dolma-Bagtche  Palace 15 

Sultan's  Coachman 16 

Kiosk  of  Fhlamour . . , . , 17 

Dwarfs  of  the  Palace 22 

Garden  and  Palace  of  Yildiz 25 

The  Sultan's  Favorite  Steed  "  Ferhan " 32 

Hamal  Carrying  United  States  Census  to  Yildiz 38 

The  Sultan's  Kiosk  at  Yildiz 40 

A  Moslem  at  Prayer 42 

Cablakiai,  or  Food  Carrier 51 

Cuisinier,  or  Cook 52 

Legation  Steam  Launch  Sunset  off  Prinkipo 65 

Mehmet,  The  American  Kavass 69 

A.  A.  Gargiulo,  Dragoman  of  the  United  States  Legation 71 

The  Minister's  Four-Horse  Act— an  Ideal 73 

Girding  on  the  Sword  of  Osman 79 

Tombs  of  the  Foimders  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  Osman  and  Orchan 81 

Genealogical  Tree  of  the  Ottoman  Rulers 83 

Aga,  or  Chief  of  the  Janizaries 87 

Commissary  of  the  Janizaries 88 

Chief  of  the  Janizary  Chasseurs 90 

Arms  of  the  Janizaries ; 92 

Old  Giuis  of  the  Janizaries 94 

Sultan  Suleiman  the  Magnificent 98 

Roxolana,  his  best  beloved  Wife 98 

Sultan  Abdul  Medjid,  Father  of  the  Present  Sultan 108 

Sultan  Abdul  Aziz,  Brother  of  the  Present  Sultan 109 

Map  of  Constantinople  at  the  Conquest 112 

Dandolo,  Doge  of  Venice ...    117 

Castle  of  Romoli-Hissar 125 

Bursting  of  Gun 130 

XV  ii 


XVlll  LIST  OF  ILL USTRA  TIONS. 

Gypsies  of  the  Bosporus 144 

Life-Saving  Breeches 149 

Map  of  the  Caspian  Oil  Region 155 

Nymphs  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Byzantium 160 

The  Hebrew  Tinkering  an  American  Petroleum  Can i6i 

A  Bulgarian  Woman 1 79 

Albanian  in  Costume 182 

Circassians 183 

A  Hebrew  from  Jerusalem 205 

A  Moslem  Reading  the  Koran 215 

Dancing  Dervishes  227 

Fac-simile  Signature  of  the  (Ecumenical  Patriarch,  Simeon  I,  A.  D.  1474. .  254 
Fac-simile  Signature  of  QLcumenical Patriarch,  MetrophanesIII.,  A.  D.  1567  258 

Dionysius  V.,  The  Greek  Patriarch — Recently  Elected 271 

The  Armenian-Gregorian  Patriarch — Monseigneur  Vehabedian 285 

The  Coat  of  Arms  of  the  Washington  Family 290 

"  Ghit !  "     With  the  Kavass 305 

A  Goose-Fight  near  Adrianople 318 

Scene  from  the  Cadi,  Chapter  XXVII.,  Page  349 318 

King  Solomon  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba. 322 

Pasha  of  Bagdad  on  a  Spree 325 

Hodja's  Picture 334 

Hodja  Without  his  Latch-Key 335 

The  Hodja  Sneezing  in  the  Well 339 

The  Hodja's  Donkey  on  his  Veracity   339 

The  Donkey's  Ears  and  the  Crazy  Man 346 

A  Modern  Cadi 348 

Amoig  the  Cadis 349 

Turkish  Lex  Talionis  ;   or.  Jumping  on  the  Old  Man 355 

The  Donkey  as  a  Detective 359 

The  Worst  Man  in  Turkey 366 

The  Stupidest  Man  in  Turkey 368 

The  Sponge-Diver  at  the  Legation 375 

Moussa  Bey  Buys  a  Bible  379 

Constantinople  in  A.  D.  1632 383 

Four  Separate  Groups  on  the  Sultana  Valide  Bridge  of  Different  types,  viz. : 
1st  Group:  Tart-Seller;  jd  Group  :  Zebeck  from  Interior; 

Arab  from  Mecca;  Circassian; 

Rug  Pedler;  Arab  from  Bagdad; 

Turcoman 391  Syrian  Nomad 397 

2d  Group:  Turkish  Woman  from  Mecca;  4th  Group:  Ice-cream  Seller; 

Armenian  Family;  A  Candy-Man; 

Woman  and  Slave  from  Saarit ;  Water  Pedler ; 

Kurdish    Woman    from    In-  Plate  Merchant 399 

terior 393 

The  Mosque  of  Ortakeui  and  the  CaYques 407 

CaYque  at  the  "  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Europe 409 

Ancient  Galley 415 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xix 

Dogs  in  the  Streets  of  Constantinople 417 

Donkey  Riding  in  the  Orient 425 

A  Dog  Fight  in  Constantinople ..    427 

A  Turcoman  and  his  Bears 4_;6 

The  Meat  Seller  and  the  Hungry  Packs  447 

The  Burnt  Column  of  Constantine 454 

Bazaar  Scene 460 

The  Turkish  Cemetery  at  Scutari 476 

Tomb  of  Ali 479 

"  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Asia 483 

Group  of  Turkish  Women  at  "  The  Sweet  Waters.'' 484 

Moon-Gazers  Running  for  the  Reward  at  Bairam 505 

Interior  Staircase  of  Dolma-Bagtche  Palace 507 

A  Turkish  Lady  of  1851 513 

A  Turkish  Lady  of  1887 516 

Turkish  Lady  and  Slave  in  the  Harem 518 

The  Muchoir  Dance  in  the  Harem  523 

The  Eunuch  of  1887 530 

Black  and  White  Eunuchs  and  Dwarf  in  1807  (colored) 535 

Turkish  School  Children 552 

Turkish  School  Teachers 554 

A  Sum  in  Turkish  Arithmetic 557 

An  Old  Woman  Looking  for  Brides  m  the  Schoolroom . . 570 

Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  First  President  of  Robert  College 584 

The  American  Robert  College 591 

Turkey  and  the  "  Powers"  Ready  to  Carve 603 

Bashi-Bazouks 617 

The  King  and  Queen  of  Greece 655 

Palace  of  Sophia — Bulgaria 661 

Parliament  Building  at  Sophia,  Bulgaria 661 

Prince  Alexander  of  Battenberg,  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Coburg,  the  Czar 
of  Russia 677 


CHAPTER  I. 

ARRIVAL   AT   CONSTANTINOPLE. 

It  is  easier  to  do  a  thing  again,  than  to  do  it  the  first  time. 
This  is  a  simple  statement  of  a  fact  sometimes  forgotten.  Twice 
before  my  appointment  as  Envoy  to  Turkey,  I  had  been  to  Con- 
stantinople. On  the  first  occasion,  in  185 1,  in  life's  morning,  we, 
— 7i>e,  I  say — on  a  honeymoon — sailed  thither  in  a  French  steamer 
up  the  Mediterranean.  On  the  second  occasion,  thirty  years 
afterwards,  we  traveled  to  Turkey  from  the  land  of  the  Mid- 
night Sun.  After  visiting  St.  Petersburg,  Moscow  and  Odessa, 
we  crossed  the  Black  Sea.  We  arrived  in  time  to  meet  our  then 
new  Minister,  General  Lewis  Wallace — of  literary  and  military 
fame.  Upon  his  staff,  I  temporarily  served  when  the  Minister  was 
first  presented  to  the  Sultan. 

Unlike  our  first  voyage,  the  difficulty  in  reaching  Constan- 
tinople in  the  year  1885  was  at  the  start.  There  were  strong 
bonds  which  attached  us  to  our  home  and  city,  and  myself  to 
long-accustomed  congressional  life.  Leaving  the  latter  was  a 
resignation  more  Christian  than  political.  After  the  sumptuous. 
Oriental  banquet  with  which  the  people  of  New  York  honored  me 
at  the  Holifman  House — a  repast  which  had  all  the  gravity  of  at- 
traction and  the  levity  of  festivity — there  arose  other  impedi- 
ments. It  was  as  difficult  to  leave  the  harbor  as  it  was  to  obtain 
the  consent  of  constituents.  Then,  in  mid-ocean,  among  the  ice- 
bergs of  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  the  steamer  of  the  Cunard 
line — the  Gallia — broke  her  shaft,  as  if  reluctant  to  bear  us  away. 
This  incident  may  not  be  placed  to  the  account  of  **  Diversions." 
Our  ocean  voyage  was  nearly  a  score  of  days,  when  it  should  have 
been  but  half  that  time.  Although  we  had  not  the  full  allowance 
of  sea  stores  on  board,  we  had  the  skill  of  mechanism,  by  which, 
after  many  days  of  anxiety,  our  shaft  was  patched  up  and  the 
engine  was  again  in  motion. 

The  Fourth  of  July  reached  us  when  we  were  in  sight  of  Ire- 
land.   That  was  a  Diversion.    Despite  many  sick  days  the  writer 


2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY, 

had  occasion  to  indulge  his  rhetorical  jubilation.  He  endeavored 
to  prove  to  his  British  cousins  on  board  that  our  Revolutionary 
War  was  fought  to  assert  the  principles  of  the  English  constitu- 
tion ;  and  that,  in  vindicating  those  principles,  Great  Britain  was 
aggrandized  by  the  magnificent  secular  growth  of  her  successfully 
rebellious  step-child. 

Between  Washington  and  Constantinople,  forty  days  are  al- 
lowed the  Minister.  Every  one  of  these  days  was  occupied, 
partly  by  the  misadventure  to  the  Gallia,  and  partly  by  reason 
of  the  earthly  rest  at  London,  Paris,  Munich,  Vienna  and  Buda- 
Pesth. 

Many  of  the  "  t)iversions  "  recorded  in  this  volume  were  not 
simply  produced  by  observation  abroad,  but  by  observations  at 
home  as  to  our  movements.  The  cable  seems  to  have 
been  no  unreluctant  medium  for  remarkable  stories.  In  this  office 
it  fulfilled  one  demand  of  humor,  which  may  consist  in  retailing 
huge  unveracities.  For  instance,  the  interesting  intelligence  was 
received  in  New  York  from  London,  that  the  United  States  Min- 
ister to  Turkey  left  that  city  for  Paris  on  his  way  to  his  new 
post  in  regal  style,  the  railroad  company  having  done  him  the 
exceptional  honor  of  placing  the  royal  salon  at  his  disposal. 
Upon  this  announcement,  the  hundred-mouthed  press  made  its 
commentaries:  "  Lo  !  here  is  our  President,"  said  the  journalist, 
"at  Washington.  Observe  his  habits.  He  rises  from  his  shuck 
mattress  at  4  o'clock  in  the  morning.  He  works  all  day  in  his 
shirt-sleeves.  He  partakes  of  a  frugal  breakfast  of  mush  and 
griddle-cakes.  He  lives  so  plainly  that  visitors  cannot  distinguish 
him  from  the  janitor  of  the  White  House.  Thus  he  sets  a  beau- 
tiful example  of  *  Jacksonian  simplicity,'  while  this  Minister  to 
another  Sardanapalus  is  speeding  toward  his  post  in  a  royal  salon 
car,  arrayed  in  purple  and  fine  linen  !" 

Some  journals  called  for  immediate  action.  If  such  things  con- 
tinued, where  would  they  stop  ?  The  next  thing  would  be  that 
the  Sultan  would  place,  not  only  a  royal  salon,  but  a  royal 
harem,  at  the  disposal  of  this  luxurious  Minister  of  a  Democratic 
Administration  !     This  pleasant  prophecy  was  not  fulfilled. 

After  a  week's  busy  life  in  London,  ten  days  in  securing 
an  outfit  in  Paris,  two  days  at  Munich  looking  at  the  breweries 
and  foundries — which,  in  our  callow  conjecture,  we  took  for 
palaces — three   days   at   Vienna,  where   we   saw    the    "  Flying 


APPROACH  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE.  3 

Dutchman''  of  Wagner,  and  two  days  in  Buda-Pesth,  the  superbly- 
situated  capital  of  Hungary — where  an  exposition  was  going 
on,  of  rare  interest — and  one  day  in  Varna,  on  the  inhospitable 
Euxine,  and  a  night  on  the  steamer  from  Varna— we  arrive  at 
Cavak,  the  fortified  mouth  of  the  Bosporus.  It  is  a  rough  sea- 
journey,  but  when  daylight  dawns  we  see  the  house  of  our 
Consul,  with  our  flag  flying  over  it,  at  Therapia  !  We  almost 
renew  our  former  Turkish  kef  and  say,  "Well,  at  last,  we  are 
here  to  rest! " 

No  student,  no  man,  can  approach  the  city  of  Constantinople 
— the  confines  of  Christendom — without  peculiar  sensations. 
These  are  not  aroused  merely  by  the  novelty  of  the  scenes  and 
the  strangeness  of  the  costumes:  the  memories  which  are  ever 
associated  with  the  land  upon  which  he  enters  invest  the  capital 
of  the  Orient  with  a  mystic  romance  unknown  to  the  Occident. 

But  a  new  and  patriotic  experience  awaits  us  before  we  land. 
The  captain  of  our  Austrian  Lloyds  vessel  raises  the  star- 
spangled  flag,  in  honor  of  our  country  and  the  Envoy.  Soon  we 
sight  the  launch  which  Congress  had  voted.  It  flies  the  starry 
ensign. 

The  name  of  the  Lloyds  vessel  is  the  Uhland.  Its 
captain's  name  is  John  Mizzekinovnichvich.  He  is  a  Dalmatian 
of  fair  renown;  and,  like  all  Austrian  subjects  who  take  to  the 
sea  from  the  Adriatic,  he  has  a  magnificent  physique.  Besides, 
he  speaks,  as  do  all  captains  of  the  Lloyds,  the  English  lan- 
guage. But  who  could  or  can  speak  his  own  sesquipedalian 
name  in  our  tongue  ? 

If  I  have  made  any  mistake  in  giving  our  captain  his  proper 
name  properly,  it  is  because  my  orthography  was  not  thoroughly 
cultured  by  my  Dalmatian  servant,  Pedro. 

Nothing  eventful  happened  on  our  journey  overland  to  the 
Black  Sea.  There  were  some  embarrassments  en  route  connected 
with  the  numerous  boundaries  and  their  Custom-houses.  We 
were  not  on  the  overland  train,  which  runs  through  in  four  days 
from  Paris  to  Constantinople,  although  at  first  we  intended  to 
make  that  disposition  of  ourselves.  Stopping  at  the  cities 
named  compelled  us  to  undergo  the  experience  of  local 
travelers.  In  crossmg  the  boundary  line  between  Hungary  and 
Roumania  I  was  nonplussed,  for  I  learned  that  our  trunks  were 
not  on  board.      Thev  were  coming  through  by  the  express.     In 


4  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

that  baggage  was  my  special  passport,  after  which  the  officers  of 
the  customs  were  in  quest  before  allowing  us  to  go  on.  I  had 
made  a  mistake  in  packing  my  carpet-bag.  I  took  with  me  my 
commission  as  Envoy,  signed  "  Grover  Cleveland,"  and  coun- 
tersigned by  "  T.  F.  Bayard,"  instead  of  my  passport.  But  what  did 
it  matter  to  a  customs  officer  who  could  read  neither  passport  nor 
commission  !  I  displayed  my  commission  with  its  large  eagle,  its 
stars  and  its  legend.  Its  text  authorized  me  to  perform  all 
matters  as  to  the  office,  and  the  said  office  to  hold  and  exercise. 
To  my  surprise,  the  officer  took  the  commission  and  bore  it  away. 
I  never  expected  to  see  it  again.  How  could  I  present  myself  to 
the  Sultan  !  It  was  my  only  credential.  At  length,  to  my  relief, 
the  officer  returned  with  it.  He  had  had  it  vised  by  the  stamp  of 
the  Roumanian  agent,  Ul  Vamal.  I  had  better  luck  on  my 
return  home  through  Roumania,  when  we  stopped  at  its  capital, 
Bucharest.  There  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  Sir  William 
White,  who  had  been  my  colleague  at  Constantinople  during  the 
Conferences.  We  remained  at  Bucharest  a  day.  While  there 
we  received  a  pressing  invitation  to  visit  the  King  and  Queen,  the 
latter  known  as  the  accomplished  Carmen  Sylva,  and  the  promise 
of  hospitality  and  a  dinner  at  Sanaii — their  superb  home  in  the 
Carpathian   Mountains. 

Without  further  passport  incident  or  Custom-house  Diversion 
we  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Bosporus  at  daylight.  We  had 
breakfasted,  and  were  ready  for  pratique.  Soon  we  pass 
through  the  gates — the  supposititious  gates — which  keep  all  for- 
eigners out  of  the  Bosporus,  unless  with  the  consent  of  the 
Sultan.  We  reproduce  the  olden  memories  of  our  trip  down  the 
Bosporus  six  years  before.  After  reaching  the  city,  or,  rather, 
the  harbor,  we  embark  upon  our  launch.  After  many  greet- 
ings we  steam  back  upon  our  course,  some  dozen  miles,  to 
Therapia. 

We  had  already  made  arrangements  with  our  lamented  Con- 
sul, Mr.  Heap,  to  unite  the  Legation  with  the  Consulate  at  our 
Therapia  home.  Among  the  other  friends  who  came  to  greet 
us  was  our  former  guide,  the  Greek  Dionysius.  Many  of  his 
wonderful  stories  had  already  produced  their  impression,  and  had 
vanished  like  writing  in  water. 

The  first  week  was  passed  in  watching  the  wierd  and  witching 
water-way  of  this  most  wonderful  Bosporus  in  its  mid-summer 


SUMMER  HOME.  5 

robe,  with  its  banks  of  verdure,  its  palaces  of  marble,  and,  above 
all,  its  luxurious  ease  and  its  relief  from  the  discomforts  of 
summer. 

The  day  we  landed,  the  Sultan's  Foreign  Minister,  Assim 
Pasha,  sent  a  messenger  to  tender  us  a  cordial  welcome.  He 
prepared  an  audience  with  the  Sultan,  whose  aide-de-camp  came 
the  day  after  our  arrival,  to  greet  us  on  behalf  of  His 
Majesty.     Such  greetings  are  compensation  for  the  Diversion  of 


UNITED  STATES  SUMMER  LEGATION   AT  THERAPIA. 

those  at  home  at  our  expense,  and  make  up  for  the  exile  from  old 
friends. 

The  home  in  which  we  are  ensconced  for  the  summer  has 
one  window  looking  out  over  terraces  extending  upward  three 
hundred  feet.  This  garden  is  leafy  and  green  in  the  moist 
warmth  from  the  waves  below  us.  Its  roses,  magnolias,  helio- 
tropes, jessamine,  Virginia  and  other  creepers,  make  an  exquisite 
picture.     Out  of  another  window  there  is  a  prospect  of  the  hills 


6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

of  Buyukdere — one  of  the  beautiful  villages  of  the  upper  Bos 
porus,  where  my  colleagues  of  many   Legations   reside.     The 
clappotage  of  the  waves  against  the  stone  quay  almost  under  our 
window   lulls   one   into  a  poetic  swoon.      Thus  the  first  week 
passes  by. 

My  predecessor,  General  Wallace,  had  to  wait  fifty  days  before 
his  reception.  Such  occasions  are  frequently  postponed,  for 
reasons  that  appear  strange  to  American  etiquette,  which  soon 
admits  to  these  diplomatic  welcomes.  My  delay  was  not  more 
than  thirty  days.  The  United  States  ship  of  war  Quinnebaug 
happened  to  be  in  the  Bosporus  at  that  time,  and  its  officers  were 
anxious  to  be  presented  to  the  Sultan.  As  I  had  some  experience 
in  this  business  along  with  General  Wallace,  we  made  every 
arrangement  for  a  good  company,  which  should  attend  upon  the 
Reception. 


CHAPTER  II. 

WAITING  FOR  THE  RECEPTION — OBSEQUIES  OF  GENERAL  GRANT — THE 
LEGATION — RESIDENCE — THE  SALEMLIK  MUSIC. 

The  time  spent  in  waiting  for  the  reception  by  the  Sultan  is 
passed  in  voyaging  up  and  down  the  Bosporus,  and  in  making  the 
diplomatic  courtesies.  We  enjoy  the  courtesies,  the  Euxine 
breezes  and  sights  which  belong  to  these  extraordinary  waters. 

In  the  middle  of  August  comes  the  sad  news  of  the  death  of 
General  Grant.  On  the  i6th  of  August  the  American  colony 
meet  at  the  Consulate,  together  with  a  large  attendance  of  ladies 
and  gentlemen  of  other  nationalities.  The  officers  and  men  of 
the  Quinnebaug,  then  undergoing  repairs  in  the  Golden  Horn, 
attend  also.  All  pay  such  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  ex- 
President  and  soldier  as  was  fitting  his  fame  and  virtues.  The 
occasion  was  the  means  of  bringing  the  Minister  near  to  many 
with  whom  he  was  afterwards  associated.  The  venerable  Doctor 
Wood  presided.  Many  of  the  professors  of  Robert  College  were 
there.  Hobart  Pasha,  the  Admiral  of  the  Turkish  fleet,  and 
whilom  blockade-runner  in  our  civil  war,  then  in  full  life,  added 
his  expressions  of  sympathy.  Rustem  Pasha,  the  present  Turk- 
ish Minister  at  London,  wrote  to  say  how  sincerely  he  associated 
himself  with  the  sentiments  of  grief  felt  by  the  American  people 
for  the  loss  of  their  great  citizen.  The  Minister  was  then  called 
on  to  do  his  first  duty — alas  !  a  melancholy  one — in  eulogy  of 
the  deceased. 

As  General  Grant  was  from  my  native  State  of  Ohio — the  home 
of  the  Shermans,  Sheridans,  McPhersons  and  McCooks  of  our 
conflict — it  was  my  special  pride  to  be  known  in  Congress  as  his 
devoted  friend,  perhaps  next  in  that  body  to  Mr.  Washburn,  of 
Illinois.  It  was  my  privilege,  just  before  the  close  of  the  war, 
when  Grant's  army  was  before  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  to  be 
the  General's  guest ;  and  just  before  leaving  Congress  I  had  the 
honor  to  introduce  the  first  bill  to  re-instate  him  in  the  army. 

This  relation  gave  me  the  privilege  to  speak  with  emphasis  of 


8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

the  eventful  life  which  had  just  closed,  and  in  which  cloud  and 
sunshine  so  strangely  alternated.  May  I  be  permitted  to  quote 
what  I  had  occasion  to  say  in  that  far-off  country,  concerning 
some  personal  reminiscences,  as  well  as  General  Grant's  public 
services  ? 

*'Does  not  our  American  pulse  beat  stronger,  and  our  patriotic  love  grow 
warmer,  by  the  contemplation  of  the  character  of  such  an  American  ?  If  in  life 
he  was  such  a  lever  of  power,  in  death  his  grave  is  the  fulcrum  of  that  reserved 
force  which,  in  our  future  battles  for  law  and  liberty,  will  be  felt  as  that  of  no 
other  American,  unless  it  be  Washington  and  Lincoln  ! 

"We  read  of  the  meetings  of  czars  and  emperors  to  determine  questions  of 
territory  and  state;  we  hear  of  the  marriages  of  princes  and  princesses,  and  of 
efforts  for  the  permanency  of  dynasties;  but  far  more  significant  and  illustrious 
is  the  departing  splendor  of  this  evening  orb  of  the  Western  Hemisphere. 
Modest  magnificence,  unassuming  pomp  and  sturdy  strength — what  qualities  to 
allure  other  people  to  America  as  the  cynosure  of  their  hopes  and  happiness ! 

"Is  it  not  fit,  in  this  Oriental  land,  far  from  the  sympathetic  contact  of  our 
fellow-countrymen  at  home,  that  we,  as  Americans,  should  echo  their  sad  refrain 
over  the  loss  of  our  chiefest  chieftain  ? 

"The  custodians  of  his  fame  are  not  only  upon  the  Hudson  and  the  Potomac: 
they  are  here  also  upon  the  Bosporus.  His  deeds  belong  no  less  to  the  North 
and  South  of  our  own  land  than  to  the  remotest  East  and  the  farthest  West  of 
our  planet.  He  belongs  to  all ;  and  although  with  half-masted  flag  and  mourning 
drapery,  with  muffled  drums  and  wreaths  of  ivy  and  laurel,  he  is  borne  to  his 
sepulchre  upon  the  beautiful  heights  near  our  great  metropolis,  yet  the  heritage 
of  his  renown  is  not  theirs  nor  ours  only:  it  is  the  property  of  mankind.  The 
East  melts  into  the  West  and  the  West  into  the  East  before  its  brilliancy.  It 
has  no  horizon.  In  every  army,  in  every  land,  aye,  among  the  hosts  of  the 
silent  armies  of  our  own  land  which  have  preceded  him  to  the  unseen  bourne, 
there  is  a  bivouac  of  the  dead  around  his  tomb,  and  a  cordon  of  sentinels  keeping 
eternal  ward  over  his  glory. 

"  The  Epic  Muse  has  sung  of  the  heroes  of  these  classic  and  romantic  shores. 
Troy  is  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ottoman.  Greece  still  peoples  these  lands. 
Terusalem  and  its  holy  places  are  not  unrealities  to  us.  Here  is  the  historic 
home  of  Homeric  heroes.  The  Paynim  and  Christian,  knightly  Saladins  and 
chivalric  Geoffreys,  and  more  recently  captains  of  modern  armies,  have  met  in 
deadly  encounter  to  aggrandize  power,  reconstruct  boundaries,  glorify  patriot- 
ism, or  vindicate  faiths.  Their  deeds  *in  majestic  cadence  rise  and  fall '  to  the 
music  of  lucent  waters,  under  the  bluest  of  skies  and  the  most  witching  of  asso- 
ciations. Nowhere  else  have  there  been  sung  sweeter  lyrics  or  grander  epics 
in  honor  of  men  of  war  and  men  of  peace.  Here  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  rose 
to  the  swelling  of  the  voiceful  sea,  but  no  strain  of  poetry,  no  burst  of  eloquence, 
has  ever  given  to  the  holy  air  of  the  Orient  a  name  more  revered,  a  patriotism 
more  exalted,  and  sacrifices  more  pure  than  those  which  are  symbolized  in  the 
laurel  wreath  and  civic  crown  upon  the  dismantled  domestic  altar  of  the  soldier, 
statesman  and  man — Ulysses  S.  Grant !  " 


DBA TH  AT  HOME,'  LIFE  ABROAD.  q 

How  soon  one  sad  event  follows  another  !  The  year  had  not 
closed  before,  in  a  mournful  procession,  there  was  announced  the 
deaths  of  General  McClellan  and  Vice-President  Hendricks,  to 
both  of  whom  I  was  personally  attached  from  old  associations. 
Then  followed  the  death  of  General  Hancock.  It  seemed  as  if,  to 
the  exile  from  home,  there  was  added  the  poignancy  of  these  fast- 
coming,  regretful  memories.  And  yet  how  soon  such  clouds  are 
lifted,  under  a  sky  like  that  of  the  Bosporus  !  Here,  in  the  midst 
of  death,  we  are  in  life !  Many  a  vivid  incident  served  to  dis- 
tract the  mind  from  its  bodings. 

As  the  summer  passes  away,  we  fill  its  days;  sometimes  with  ex- 
cursions to  the  Giant' s  Mountain.  Sometimes  in  our  launch  we  cross 
to  the  Asiatic  shore,  or  run  up  in  cur  caique  where  the  "  Sweet 
Waters"  are  situated.  On  Fridays  we  cross  the  Straits,  and 
mingle  with  the  throngs  on  the  meadows  near  these  "  Sweet  Waters," 
where  thousands  of  Turkish  women  and  children  disport  them- 
selves, or  enjoy  their  domestic  picnics  in  groups  under  the 
shadows  of  the  sycamores.  The  Bosporus  is  the  same  as  of  yore 
— renowned  for  more  than  two  thousand  years  for  its  fish.  We 
drop  the  line  in  its  waters  within  a  few  feet  of  our  own  door.  We 
catch  the  little  shiners  from  the  clear  depths.  They  are  both 
toothsome  and  beautiful.  In  our  promenades,  followed  by  our 
stately  and  obese  Kavass,  we  pass  up  and  down  the  quays,  re- 
ceiving the  salutations  of  the  soldiers  of  the  barracks,  or  wander 
over  the  hills  safe  from  all  intrusion  or  fear.  Everyone  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Therapia  vies  with  each  other  in  hospitality  and 
courtesy. 

The  summers  upon  the  Bosporus  are  prolonged  late  into  the 
fall.  Many  of  the  Ministers  and  other  residents  upon  the  upper 
Straits  never  leave  their  country  homes  until  the  autumn  winds 
sharpen  in  November.  Then  the  walls  of  the  gardens  are  fes- 
tooned with  vines  tinted  warm  and  red  with  the  advancing  season. 
They  add  a  rich  sheen  to  the  beauty  of  departing  summer. 

We  move  to  the  city  about  the  first  of  November.  We  had  al- 
ready organized  the  Legation  under  one  roof.  Our  new  quarters 
are  comfortable.  The  rooms  have  such  an  unusual,  sprightly  and 
elegant  aspect  as  to  astonish  the  tourist  and  confound  the  economic 
State  Department.  The  Legation  rooms  are  near  the  Royal 
Hotel,  where  we  lodge.  Having  taken  a  full  suite  on  the  second 
floor  of  the  hotel,  we  have  a  splendid  outlook,  not  only  over  the 


lO  .  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Golden  Horn,  with  its  bridges  and  boats,  and  Stamboul,  with  its 
domes  and  minarets,  but  far  beyond,  over  the  Marmora  Sea  to 
the  mountains  of  Asia,  among  which  the  Mysean  Olympus  shows 
conspicuous  and  pre-eminent. 

From  our  rooms,  every  Friday  noon,  we  are  reminded  of 
the  Salemlik  ;  for  passing  up  our  rue-^Petits-Champs — there 
marches  a  regiment  with  a  band  discoursing  music,  whose  tones, 
half  Oriental,  mingle  in  strange  symphony  the  wierd,  barbaric 
wailings  of  the  bagpipe  with  the  round  swelling  bursts  of  more 
aesthetic  instrumentation. 


CHAPTER  III. 

RECEPTION    BY   THE    SULTAN. 

Although  familiar  with  public  life,  its  receptions  and  glamour, 
and  although  I  had  a  peculiar  opportunity  as  the  extemporized 
attache  of  General  Wallace  in  1881,  when  he  was  presented  ta 
the  Sultan,  still  I  experienced  considerable  tremor  in  relation  to 
my  own  reception.  After  being  advised  by  telegraph  from  Munir 
Pasha,  the  First  Chamberlain,  of  the  day  fixed  for  the  ceremony, 
and  advised  again  of  its  postponement,  and  then,  as  is  the 
custom,  of  another  day  being  fixed,  the  anxieties  were  enhanced. 
Besides,  had  I  not  been  informed  by  the  initiated  that  I  was 
expected  to  furnish  my  speech  to  His  Majesty  in  advance,  or, 
rather,  through  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  that  it  might  be 
investigated,  or,  rather,  read  between  the  lines,  so  that  nothing 
offensive  should  be  said  or  suggested  ?  According  to  the  rule, 
the  speech,  in  both  the  French  and  English  text,  is  sent  to  the 
Foreign  Minister.  I  need  not  say  that  it  was  short.  It  was  the 
"  greatest  effort  of  my  life,"  and  laboriously  I  worked  at  it.  The 
labor  consisted  in  its  abbreviation.  Accustomed  to  the  five- 
minute  rule  in  Congress,  I  was  cautioned  that  it  would  be  wiser  to 
make  the  speech  even  shorter  than  five  minutes,  if  possible.  I 
had  more  difficulty  about  the  French  than  the  English  portion. 
For  the  benefit  of  callow  diplomats,  and  as  my  colleague,  Mr. 
Fearn,  sought  for  it  as  a  model  at  his  audience  with  King  George 
of  Greece,  I  modestly  transcribe  it  herein: 

"Your  Majesty: 

"  It  is  my  special  delectation  to  present  from  my  Government  the  letters 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States  which  accredit  me  as  their  representa- 
tive near  your  Majesty. 

"  Without  indulging  in  any  personal  retrospect,  in  which  are  associated 
many  early  and  recent  memories  of  a  charming  sojourn  in  your  superb  cap- 
ital, and  of  instructive  travel  in  your  historic  country,  and  without  indulging 
in  any  formal  and  unnecessary  protestations  as  to  the  past  and  future  relations 
between  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  the  States  of  the  Federal  Union,  it  is  my 
pleasure  to   say,  that,  by  inclination,  interest,   tradition,    friendship  and  jus- 


1 2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

tice,  there  can  be  no  other  than  relations  of  comity  and  kindness  between  the 
respective  nations.  The  United  States  would  not,  if  they  could,  depart  from 
the  invariable  policy  which  forbids  all  entangUments  in  foreign  aflEairs,  a  policy 
which  has  signally  marked  our  intercourse,  and  which  has  preser\'ed  from 
stress  and  severance,  amidst  all  vicissitudes,  our  relations  with  other  Powers. 

"  It  is  personally  gratifying  that  I  am  enabled  to  follow  a  predecessor  who 
has  established  satisfactory  relations  with  your  Majesty.  It  wfll  be  my  hope  to 
be  allowed  to  share  in  the  good-will  extended  to  my  friend  and  predecessor. 

"It  is  a  delightful  duty  to  assure  your  Majesty  that  it  will  be  my 
endeavor  to  continue  and  irtcrease  (if  possible)  the  cordiality  of  those  ties  by 
which  the  two  great  nations  of  the  Orient  and  Occident  are  so  happfly 
imbound."  * 

This  speech  caused  me  barrels  of  perspiration  ;  yet  one  word 
in  the  translation  became  almost  a  casus  belli.  It  was  the  word 
**  entanglements."  I  translated  it  enchevitrenunts.  I  had  in  my 
mind  Washington's  Farewell  Address  as  to  all  foreign  entangling 
alliances.  There  is  no  synonj-m  for  the  idea  in  French,  except  the 
word  which,  after  much  research,  I  had  selected.  Nor  is  there  in 
that  polite  tongue  any  compounding  of  syllables,  as  in  the  Ger- 
man. My  "entanglement "  might  be  rendered  as,  for  instance, 
a  colt  with  a  halter,  a  very  interesting  though  by  no  means  an 
exalting  allusion.  When  my  French  speech  was  scanned  by  the 
leading  linguist  in  the  Foreign  Office  in  Stamboul,  assisted  by  a 
cohort  of  polyglots,  they  lit  upon  the  words  etuhev^trement.  What 
could  it  mean?  Was  it  an  American  torpedo,  or  polysyl- 
labic dynamite  for  the  overthrow  of  the  dynasty  ?  Whatever 
might  have  been  their  opinion  of  the  explosive  and  perilous  com- 
position, I  was  satisfied,  from  intimations,  that  the  delay  of  my 
reception  for  some  days  was  occasioned  by  the  confusion  incident 
to  this  terrible  six-footed  word.  I  felt,  however,  compensated 
for  my  linguistic  pains,  by  laying  the  anxiety  upon  the  altar  of 
of  my  country,  and  kindling  its  patriotic  flame  with  the  "  Fare- 
well Address." 

The  speech  was  finally  accepted  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was 
intended,  and  thenceforth  the  respective  countries  never  ceased 
to  dwell  together  in  diplomatic  unit)'.  My  apprehensions  had 
been  quickened  when  I  remembered  the  august  presence  in  which 
my  personality  was  officially  to  appear ;  for  Turkey  is,  in 
a  diplomatic  way,  among  the  most  interesting  of  the  Powers  of 
the  earth. 

The  past,  present  and  future  seemed  to  be  concentrated  in 


THRILLING  ANTICIPATIONS.  j  •> 

the  journey  down  the  Bosporus,  whose  termination  in  the 
Reception  was  to  be  under  such  novel  and  happy  circumstances. 

As  this  volume  is  a  record  of  personal  reminiscence,  it  may 
not  be  accounted  egotistic  if  I  describe  the  subjectivity  as  well 
as  the  objectivity  of  the  unusual  situation. 

I  had  but  a  few  months  before  left  a  forum  in  which  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  of  service  had  made  a  "property  of  easiness." 
After  many  wanderings  between  my  native  Ohio,  my  official 
home  at  Washington,  and  my  adopted  home — "  no  mean  city  " — 
New  York,  and  after  divers  travels  between  America,  Asia, 
Africa  and  Europe,  I  was  about  to  become  an  official  fixture 


PALACE  OF   DOLMA-BAGTCHfe. 


amidst  most  romantic  surroundings.  I  was  about  to  meet,  in 
most  unrepublican  fashion,  the  ruler  of  forty  millions  of  people 
and  the  Caliph  of  two  hundred  millions.  The  Bosporus,  the 
Seraglio  Point,  the  silent  gesture  of  the  minarets,  the  marbled 
palaces,  and  the  very  uniforms  and  languages  on  every  side,  gave 
to  the  expected  reception  a  bewildering  delight.  The  bright  blue 
of  the  summer  skies,  the  rolling  hills  of  the  Asiatic  shores,  and 
the  perpetual  movements  of  the  waters,  with  their  strange  craft, 
their  restless  birds,  sportive  dolphins,  and  peculiar  people,  added 
their  thrilling  sensations. 

We  start  out  from  Therapia  bravely.     The  white  kerchiefs  of 


14  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

the  ladies  from  the  Legation  balcony  wave  us  their  encourage- 
ment. The  flag  fairly  snaps  in  the  Euxine  wind  ;  and  the  gilded 
eagle  of  the  launch  seems  to  protrude  his  beak,  as  if  showing 
the  anxiety  and  excitement  of  the  hour.  I  am  accompanied  by 
the  Consul-General,  Mr.  Heap — now  no  more — Professor  Gros- 
venor,  of  the  Robert  College,  and  the  officers  of  the  Legation, 
including  the  Kavass. 

We  are  to  land  at  the  marble  quay  of  the  Dolma-Bagtche  palace 
— the  incomparable  structure  of  the  world  !  A  description  of  it 
may  not  be  uninteresting  at  this  very  point,  for  it  is  a  part  of 
the  mise  en  scene  of  the  performance  :  It  is  situated  on  the  Bos- 
porus. It  is  about  two  miles  from  the  port  of  Constantinople. 
Its  park  is  surrounded  by  a  wall  twenty  feet  high.  Its  gates  are 
of  white  marble,  and  fit  to  open  to  the  popes  and  rulers  of  the 
«arth.  They  are  superb  in  decorations  of  gilt  and  tracery  of 
beauty. 

This  palace  was  built  by  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid.  He  was  the 
father  of  the  present  Sultan,  and  a  rare  man  and  statesman.  The 
road  from  Dolma-Bagtche  to  Yildiz  follows  the  shore  of  the  Bos- 
porus, though  one  cannot  see  the  stream  through  the  village  of 
Bechiktash.  This  name,  when  translated,  means  "  stone  cradle." 
All  Turkish  names  of  places  mean  something  substantive.  Here 
we  turn  to  the  left  over  a  very  well  paved  though  steep  and  wind- 
ing road.  This  road  brings  us,  after  much  meandering,  to  the 
palace  of  Yildiz.  The  view  from  this  high  ground  and  palace  is 
superb.  Below  us  the  rapid,  blue  Bosporus  flows  between  the 
green  and  beautiful  shores  of  Europe  and  Asia.  It  then  washes 
the  classic  Seraglio  Point,  where  so  many  of  the  Sultan's  ances- 
tor's wives  and  friends  lived  and  died.  The  outlook  over  the 
rolling  hills  of  Asia  is  entrancing,  and  this  day  we  could  plainly 
see  Mount  Olympus,  in  Asia,  rising  to  the  olden  fame  of  its 
Greek  namesake — as  the  superb  guardian  of  Troy  in  her  embat- 
tlements.     But  let  me  not  anticipate. 

We  are  received  in  cordial  and  courteous  state,  at  the  landing 
of  this  palace  of  Dolma-Bagtche,  by  the  Sous  Introducteur  des 
Antbassadeurs — Ghelib  Bey.  He  is  in  gay,  gilt  uniform.  He 
speaks  French  with  facile  grace.  We  are  then  ushered  by  him 
into  a  waiting-room.  There  we  find  the  commander  of  the 
United  States  steamship  Quinnebaug,  Captain  Ludlow,  who  has 
with   him  seven   of   his    staff,  viz..  Lieutenant  Sperry,  Lieuten- 


UP  THE  HILL  TO  YILDIZ. 


15 


ant  Sturdy,  Doctor  Tryon,  Lieutenant  Fletcher,  Lieutenant 
Dickens,  Chief  Engineer  Allen  and  his  assistant.  These  officers 
are  in  full  uniform.  They  look  brilliant  beside  the  Minister  in 
his  plain  suit  of  black.  Mr.  Emmet,  Charg6  ;  Mr.  Gargiulo,  the 
interpreter  ;  Mr.  Bigelow,  the  Marshal  of  the  Consular  Court; 
and  Mr.  Demitriades,  assistant  to  the  Consul — these  officers  are 
on  hand  in  evening  toilet.  They  are  the  Legation  and  Consular 
officials.  They  have  seen  much  service  here  at  this  venerable 
capital. 


GATE  OF  DOLMA-BAGTCUl;  PALACE. 


SAfter  some  talk,  coffee  and  cigarettes  we  are  driven, 
slowly  and  majestically,  as  becomes  those  who  are  to  be  intro- 
duced into  the  presence  of  the  Padishah  of  all  the 
Ottomans.  Our  vehicles  are  wonderful  in  their  apparel  of  gilt 
and  satin,  and  superb  in  manufacture.  They  are  the  palace  car- 
riages. They  are  drawn  by  gigantic  horses,  and  driven  by  solemn 
Turks  covered  with  gold  lace,  one  of  whom  is  pointed  out  as  the 
Sultan's  coachman.  I  am  happy  in  the  possession  of  his  por- 
trait, which  is  here  presented.     On  the  way  we  pass  in  view  the 


i6 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


beautiful  kiosk  of  Fhlamour.  We  are  not  now  permitted  to  see 
its  interior;  but  if  the  interior  be  the  counterpart  of  its  exterior 
grace  and  beauty,  there  cannot  be  found  on  our  earth  a  structure 
so  elegant  and  attractive.  I  make  no  apology  for  its  presen- 
tation in  the  picture  on  the  subsequent  page. 

Ten  minutes,  and  we  are  at  the  gate  of  the  small  but  beauti- 
fully situated  palace  of  Yildiz.  This  favorite  palace  is  built  on 
the  summit  of  a  high  hill,  in  order,  it    is   said,  to  prevent  ony 


sultan's  coachman. 
sudden  surprise  from  the  foes  of  the  Sultan.     But  under  present 
auspices  this  is  an  unnecessary  precaution. 

The  Bosporus  in  front  of  Yildiz  is  two  miles  broad.  It  runs 
about  a  mile  below  the  palace.  There  it  melts  into  the  Sea  of 
Marmora.  Yildiz  in  Turkish  means  ''  Star."  It  is  the  star  which 
glitters  between  the  horns  of  the  Crescent. 

Evidently  we  are  expected.  All  are  on  parade  or  guard. 
America   may   be   far  away,  but  her  abstinence  from  Eastern 


1 8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

complications  gives  her  a  moral  and  near  power.  Her  modesty 
and  remoteness  make  her  all  the  more  respected. 

A  guard  of  honor  of  loo  men  is  drawn  up  at  the  entrance  to 
the  palace.  The  Minister  leads  the  company  in  his  carriage. 
He  is  followed  by  the  others.  He  is  frequently  saluted  by  soldiers 
along  the  route.  When  he  arrives  at  the  palace  he  is  met  by 
Ibrahim  Bey,  who  is  one  of  the  handsomest  men  of  the  Eastern 
type.  He  escorts  the  Minister  into  a  reception-room.  There  we 
meet  Osman  Pasha,  the  hero  of  Plevna.  He  is  Minister  of 
War,  as  well  as  Marshal  of  the  Palace.  He  talks  with  the  Min- 
ister about  General  Grant,  and  anxiously  asks  after  the  children 
and  widow  of  the  General.  The  Minister  is  met  by  Assim  Pasha, 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  by  other  officers  of  high  rank 
and  distinction.  The  ovation  evidently  surprises  the  Minister. 
It  is  unusual  and  hearty.  Then  again  we  have  coffee  and  cig- 
arettes. The  coffee  is  served  in  cups  covered  with  diamonds. 
They  are  too  beautiful  to  be  discussed.  We  are  then  waited  upon 
with  even  more  than  Eastern  courtesy.  Shortly  after,  we  are 
shown  up  a  broad  stairway,  over  costly  carpets  which  we  have 
observed  inside  and  outside.  The  stairs  are  lined  on  either 
side  by  palace  officials.  These  dignitaries  and  officers  are  in 
strange  contrast  with  the  Minister  and  his  suite.  Even  the  officers 
of  the  American  man-of-war  do  not  display  in  all  their  effulgence 
the  elegance  of  the  Pashas,  chamberlains  and  other  officials 
Tvho  meet  us  at  the  palace  entrance.  We  are  conducted  within, 
walking  on  Smyrna  carpets  of  rare  design.  We  begin  to  look 
about  us,  as  we  feel  more  at  home.  We  take  a  mental  inventory  of 
the  aspect  of  the  Yildi^  interior. 

After  crossing  a  spacious  hall  paved  wdth  marble,  we  are 
ushered  into  another  reception-room.  A  large  divan  is  at  one  end, 
and  chairs  all  round  the  walls.  The  furniture  is  covered  with 
Ted  damask.  In  the  middle  of  the  room  is  a  marble  table.  On 
this  is  placed  a  large  silver  candelabra  for  sixteen  candles. 
Facing  the  divan  is  a  pier-table  supporting  a  large  clock.  This 
clock  is  of  silver.  Two  magniificent  Japanese  vases  are  on 
€ach  side.  The  floor  is  covered  with  a  priceless  Smyrna  carpet. 
Everywhere — in  palace  or  in  mosque — the  carpet  plays  a  principal 
part  in  Turkey  and  in  the  East.  Osman  Pasha,  Assim  Pasha, 
Munir  Pasha  and  other  palace  officials,  who  are  not  unknown  to 
fame  here  and  elsewhere,  are  in  this  enchanted  chamber  when  we 


pictoai^sque  interior  of  the  palace.  19 

•enter.  Munir  Pasha  is  an  old  friend  of  the  American  Minister. 
In  fact,  he  chaperoned  us  when  we  were  visitors  in  General  Wal- 
lace's time.  Munir  leaves  the  room  for  a  moment.  He  returns, 
announcing  that  His  Imperial  Majesty  is  waiting  to  receive  the 
Minister.  There  is  a  rattling  of  Quinnebaug  swords  and  a  rise 
in  gold  lace.  Then  we  proceed  up  a  broad  and  elegant  staircase 
in  the  following  order  :  The  American  Minister  is  between  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  and  the  Grand  Master  of  Ceremonies. 
Immediately  following  is  the  interpreter  of  the  American  Lega- 
tion; then  come  the  Legation  staff  and  the  officers  of  the  Quinne- 
baug. On  the  first  landing  of  the  staircase  we  pause  a  little  to 
■observe  a  choice  picture  by  the  skillful  brush  of  an  artist  signing 
himself  "G.  Washington."  This  was  very  pleasing  to  us  Ameri- 
cans. It  flattered  our  national  pride.  It  also  surprised  us.  No 
•one  knew  that  our  pater  patrce,  was  given  to  picture-work.  We 
then  enter  a  large  hall.  It  is  on  the  second  story.  On  its  walls 
hang  four-life-sized  portraits  of  ancestors  of  the  present  ruler,  to 
wit  :  On  the  right,  on  entering,  is  Sultan  Mahmoud.  He  is  the 
grandfather  of  the  Sultan.  He  was  a  ruler  of  power,  as  the 
Janizaries  found  out.  On  the  left,  Sultan  Aziz,  His  Majesty's 
uncle.  This  portrait  faces  the  entrance  on  the  right,  where  you 
see  Sultan  Med j id,  father  of  His  Majesty.  He  faces  on  the  left 
Sultan  Selim  III.,  an  ancestor  of  His  Majesty.  In  the  middle 
of  this  hall  is  a  long  table.  The  floor  is  parquet.  We  now  enter 
the  audience-room.  It  is  very  wide  and  long.  Its  floor  is  cov- 
ered with  a  Turkish  carpet.  In  the  centre  of  the  room  is  a  long 
buhl  table.  There  is  a  small  table  behind  the  Sultan,  on  which 
he  leans  while  "  audience  "  goes  on.  It  gives  him  relief  if  the 
talks  take  too  much  dimension.  The  furniture  in  the  room  is 
not  a  prominent  feature.  Most  of  it  is  from  Paris.  The  apartment 
receives  light  from  three  huge  windows  facing  the  east.  On  the 
walls  hang  superb  oil  paintings.  The  first  on  the  Sultan's  left 
represents  a  moonlight  view  of  Stamboul  and  the  Seraglio  Point, 
one  of  the  most  notable,  beautiful  and  commercial  spots  of  the 
world.  It  is  by  the  celebrated  Russian  artist  Alvasowski.  On  the 
.same  side  of  the  room  is  an  exquisite  night  scene  of  the  small 
Asiatic  palace  at  the  "  Sweet  Waters."  It  is  by  Ghickson.  Who  he 
is,  connoisseurs  know.  On  the  other  side  of  the  room  are  three 
artistic  paintings.  The  best  of  these  represents  the  Midnight 
Sun  in  Norway.     The  other  two  are  naval  engagements. 


20  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

The  Sultan  receives  us,  standing  on  a  rug  made  of  camel- 
hair  felt,  covered  with  embroidered  flowers  in  different  colored 
silk  braid  of  Turkish  work. 

As  we  are  ushered  into  the  presence,  we  make  three  bows — • 
one  at  the  door  on  entering,  the  second  half-way,  and  the  last 
when  we  stop,  a  few  feet  from  his  person.  We  do  not  bow  as  low 
as  the  Turkish  Ministers,  but  we  do  our  best.  The  Sultan  is 
standing  at  the  far  end  of  the  room,  in  front  of  a  table.  As  he 
is  the  conspicuous  object  of  our  attention,  and  a  figure  of  great 
attraction,  is  it  not  procer  to  make  a  detailed  description  of 
this  potentate  of  a  great  empire  ? 

The  Sultan  is  middle-sized  and  of  the  Turkish  type.  He 
wears  a  full  black  beard,  is  of  dark  complexion,  and  has  very 
expressive  eyes.  His  forehead  is  large,  indicative  of  intellectual 
power.  He  is  very  gracious  in  his  manner,  though  at  times  seem- 
ingly a  little  embarrassed.  He  is  dressed  in  the  uniform  of  chief 
marshal  of  the  army.  He  wears  the  following  decorations:  The 
Grand  Cordon  of  the  Osmanli,  ^Yhich  is  a  green  scarf  worn  across 
the  breast;  the  first  class  of  the  Medjidie,  in  diamonds;  the  Nichan 
Imtiaz,  an  order  instituted  by  his  grandfather,  Sultan  Mahmoud, 
and  the  Nichan  Iftihar.  The  insignia  and  medals  are  inlaid  with, 
precious  stones.  The  g^een  sash  or  scarf  is  of  a  rich  color  and 
texture.  No  person  was  ever  decorated  in  more  gorgeous  array, 
and  yet  in  his  bearing  and  demeanor  he  is  unostentatious.  Not- 
withstanding the  prejudice  of  the  Ottoman  against  images,  his 
photograph  has  been  permitted.  The  frontispiece,  which  repre- 
sents him  as  a  cavalier,  is  a  faithful  likeness. 

There  is  an  etiquette  which  Turkish  officials  observe  in  the 
Sultan's  presence.  It  has  been  much  modified  by  time,  and  since 
the  Crimean  War  greatly  modified,  like  other  old  habits  here, 
especially  as  they  affect  strangers.  On  approaching  the  Sultan 
the  officials,  when  about  ten  yards  distant,  make  a  salaam.  This 
consists  in  bending  the  body  till  the  right  hand  touches  the 
ground.  The  hand  is  then  brought  to  the  heart,  the  mouth,  and 
then  to  the  forehead.  What  does  this  mean  ?  Its"  idea  is,  that 
you  take  the  earth  from  the  ground  as  a  symbol  of  lowliness. 
Then  you  carry  the  hand  to  your  heart  and  head.  The 
lips  approve  your  regard.  After  the  first  salaam,  you  advance 
five  or  six  yards  and  repeat.  If  you  are  an  official,  again  and 
again  you  repeat  until  you  are  a  yard  and  a  half  from  the  Sultan. 


CEREMONY  OF  RECEPTION.  2  I 

Then  a  third  salaam  is  made.  Then  the  person  stops.  He 
crosses  his  hands  on  the  lower  part  of  his  stomach.  This  is  said 
to  be  a  relic  of  Persian  usage.  It  has  a  meaning.  It  is  intended 
to  show  that  the  servant  has  no  concealed  weapon  in  his  hand. 
These  officials  never  address  the  Sultan.  Every  time  he  looks 
toward  them  they  repeat  the  salaam.  After  much  genuflexion 
they  are  asked  what  their  business  is.  They  tell  their  story 
and  bow  lowly  and  bow  out. 

On  this  occasion  the  Sultan  had  on  his  right,  and  standing  in 
single  file,  with  their  backs  to  the  wall,  about  fifteen  of  his  most 
distinguished  aides-de-camp.  The  first  of  the  line  was  Ghazi 
Osman  Pasha.  He  is  called  Ghazi  because  he  is  a  conqueror. 
Then  came  Ibrahim  Dervish  Pasha,  Nuzret  Pasha,  Dreysse 
Pasha,  Fouad  Pasha,  and  others.  As  two  of  the  Muchirs  present 
at  the  audience  have  rather  romantic  histories,  may  I  append 
a  brief    biography  of  them  ? 

In  1867  Lieutenant  Dreysse,  of  the  French  army,  was  stationed 
in  Paris.  He  was  a  person  of  particularly  engaging  manners.  He 
had  a  very  distinguished  presence.  He  was  detailed  as  aide-de- 
camp to  Prince  Abdul-Hamid  (the  present  Sultan),  at  that  time  a 
very  obscure  Prince  in  the  suite  of  Sultan  Abdul-Aziz.  Dreysse 
made  such  an  impression  on  the  young  Prince  that  when  the  lat- 
ter came  to  the  throne,  his  first  thought  was  to  have  his  old  friend 
with  him.  However,  having  forgotten  his  name,  considerable  dif- 
ficulty in  finding  his  whereabouts  was  experienced  at  the  French 
War  Department.  At  last  he  was  unearthed  in  a  village  on  the 
Swiss  frontier.     He  has  since  had  every  honor  heaped  upon  him. 

The  other  romance  is  that  of  Fouad  Pasha.  About  a  year 
ago  a  very  serious  conspiracy  was  discovered  in  the  palace.  Fouad 
Pasha  was  wrongfully  supposed  to  be  at  the  head  of  it.  The  regi- 
ment of  Circassians  which  was  involved  in  it  was  banished.  It  is 
said  that  Fouad  disappeared  for  nine  or  ten  months.  His  friends 
thought  that  he  had  been  put  out  of  the  way.  There  are  so 
many  peculiarities  of  custom  and  condition  here,  that  the  ups  and 
downs  of  life  are  not  marvelous  in  such  a  land  of  wonders. 

Upon  this  occasion,  I  looked  in  vain  for  the  little  dwarf  whom 
I  saw  ride  so  fiercely  an  Arab  steed  at  a  former  reception.  I 
must  be  content  with  his  photograph.  I  have  also  a  picture 
of  his  predecessor,  Abdur-Rahman.  The  latter  Abdur  was 
buffoon    to   the   Sultan    Abdul-Aziz,  and  at  his  master's  death 


2  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


THE  SULTAN'S  HESPONSE. 


23 


he  entered  the  service  of  the  Shah  of  Persia.  He  is  a  Turk^ 
and  still  survives.  He  is  about  fifty-four  years  old,  though 
scarcely  three  feet  high.  He  is  a  bright-looking  fellow,  and,  when 
dressed  up  in  his  Circassian  General's  uniform,  as  he  used  to  be 
in  the  Palace  of  Dolma  Bagtch^,  a  most  interesting  little  man. 

At  the  presentation  the  officials — minus  the  dwarf — form  in 
two  Imes  on  either  side  of  the  hall.  The  American  Minister 
advances  between  the  Foreign  Minister  and  the  First  Chamber- 
lain. The  intei'preter,  Mr.  Gargiulo,  is  near  by.  I  do  not  make 
a  very  low  obeisance,  nor  is  it  expected.  I  receive  the  proper  in- 
timation, present  my  credentials,  and  speak  the  speech  as  it  was 
set  down,  and  with  appropriate  decorum.  The  hush  of  the  place 
conquers  my  rhetoric.  The  low  tones  in  which  everybody 
speaks  naturally  reduces  the  compass  of  the  voice.  The  speech 
is  hardly  two  minutes'  long,  but  after  it  is  finished  I  am  relieved. 
The  Sultan  is  pleased  to  respond  most  amiably.  He  is  pleased 
to  say  that  he  is  gratified  with  the  selection  made  by  the  Presi- 
dent. He  has  great  satisfaction  in  knowing  that  I  had  been  in 
the  country  before,  and  was  familiar  with  its  affairs  and  govern- 
ment. He  makes  the  usual  reference  to  the  happy  relations 
always  existing  between  the  two  nations,  and  expresses  the 
hope  that  they  would  continue.  He  is  glad  to  extend  the 
same  friendship  to  me  that  he  extended  to  my  predecessor.  After 
some  pleasant  and  informal  talk,  he  steps  forward  and  shakes 
me  warmly  by  the  hand.  Then  the  guests  are  severally  intro- 
duced to  the  Sultan,  who  expresses  his  gratification  at  having 
made  their  acquaintance.  We  then  leave  the  room,  walking 
backward,  making  the  three  bows,  as  before.  Muchir  Munir 
Pasha,  Drogman  du  Divan  Imperial,  stands  during  the  audience 
on  the  left  of  the  Sultan,  and  Assim  Pasha,  the  Foreign  Minister, 
on  his  right.  Everything  said  to  the  Sultan  is  interpreted  to  him 
by  Assim  Pasha. 

Before  leaving,  I  thank  His  Majesty  for  allowing  the 
Quinnebaug  to  be  docked  and  repainted  without  charge,  and 
for  the  compliment  thus  paid  to  the  United  States.  After  this 
a  private  audience  is  courteously  accorded  by  the  Sultan,  at 
which  some  of  the  officers  are  present.  It  is  regarded  as  an 
unusual  courtesy.  It  lasts  an  hour.  During  its  continuance 
much  informal  inquiry  is  made  and  answered.  Among  other 
matters,  the  Sultan  asks: 


24  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

"  Have  you  been  to  Constantinople  before?" 

I  respond:  "Yes,  your  Majesty.  I  was  here  in  1851; 
thirty- four  years  ago." 

This  excites  astonishment  and  interest,  and  I  add: 

"It  was  on  our  American  great  day — the  Fourth  of  July. 
Then  I  saw  your  Majesty  with  your  father.  The  occasion  was 
the  reception  of  the  Cherif  of  Mecca.  Your  Majesty  was  then 
eleven  years  of  age." 

This  led  to  much  conversation  about  the  changes  since  that 
time.  After  this  private  interview,  the  reception  ended  most 
happily;  and  we  all  returned  to  our  homes  with  the  same  stateli- 
ness  and  style. 

This  was  not  my  first  meeting  with  the  Sultan.  I  had  been, 
as  I  have  said,  presented  to  His  Majesty  in  1881  with  the  staff 
of  General  Wallace.  In  my  book,  *•  Orient  Sunbeams,"  the 
Yildiz  palace  is  described  by  a  few  dashes  of  the  pen.  I  have 
added  much  reminiscence  to  it  since  x88i.  In  that  volume  I 
indulged  in  a  little  general  reflection  upon  this  ruler  of  Turkey. 
I  repeat  it  now  as  a  first  and  lasting  impression  : 

"  He  is  a  man  of  calm  dignity  and  superior  intelligence. 
Mahomed  II.,  the  grand  progenitor  of  this  line,  who  took 
the  city  from  the  effete  Greeks,  may  have  had  more  elan,  as 
he  had  a  larger  army,  but  he  had  no  more  reserve  in  his  eye 
than  his  descendant  before  us.  Is  not  the  present  Sultan  admin- 
istering, amid  troubles  for  which  he  is  not  responsible,  a  great 
empire  of  various  nationalities  and  religions,  and  under  manifold 
embarrassments  ?  By  his  illustrious  descent  and  inborn  dignity, 
by  his  position  as  heir  of  the  Othmans,  Amuraths  and  Sulei- 
mans, he  receives — as  the  Oriental  chief  should — that  Occident 
which  has  never  encroached  upon  his  prerogative  or  domain,  and 
has  no  inclination  nor  object  in  so  doing." 

I  confess,  before  I  had  an  idea  of  being  here  in  any  but  a 
tourist's  capacity,  to  an  enthusiasm  for  this  monarch.  He  is  a 
king  every  inch,  and  without  any  dramatic  ostentation.  He 
deserves  great  regard  for  his  rare  ability.  He  is  his  own  adviser. 
Amid  his  troubles  and  cares,  and  with  the  populations  of  divers 
religions  and  races,  which  he  must  reconcile  to  rule,  he  is  not 
unworthy  of  the  fame  of  Abdul  Medjid,  whose  memory  is  to  me 
a  part  of  my  earliest  association  with  the  city  of  Constantinople. 

Before  leaving  New  York,  at  our  Oriental  banquet,  in  June, 


ili' 


^   ;U 


;  i 


/I 


if      \i  dm 


j 


\. 


hJ 


26  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

1885,  when  called  upon  to  respond  to  the  kind  wishes  of  friends, 
I  pictured  in  my  mind  this  reception  as  a  climax  of  former 
experiences  at  this  capital.  I  then  indicated,  with  more  lively 
rhetoric  than  would  be  appropriate  at  a  court  presentation,  that 
to  enjoy  the  Orient  one  should  have  thoughts  impearled  upon 
vestments  of  Oriental  light,  and  imagery  as  enchanting  as  dreams 
of  Cashmere.  I  had  anticipated  something  of  that  bewildering 
exhilaration  which  one  might  indulge  for  a  thousand  and  one 
nights  and  never  surfeit.  I  spoke  of  the  melody  of  the  Eastern 
nightingale,  who  sings  his  love  to  the  rose  in  the  tender  idyls  of 
Hafiz.  There  was  in  my  imagination  all  the  rare  emblems  of  the 
East,  and  I  looked  upon  a  residence  in  Turkey,  to  which  this 
reception  would  invite,  as  the  consummation  of  all  poetic  fancies. 
I  was  to  give  up  for  ever  the  old  toilsome  life  of  congressional 
wrangle.  I  was  to  watch  calmly  the  progress  of  events  in  the 
Orient,  v/ith  a  view  to  seize  every  demonstration  of  war  as  an 
opportunity  for  commercial  America.  But  ever  and  always,  whei> 
I  fancied  myself  amidst  the  changes  and  progressive  liberalities 
flickering  over  and  around  the  ancient  and  modern  city  of  empire 
to  which  the  President  had  accredited  me,  I  could  not  help  draw- 
ing contrasting  pictures  of  the  overshadowing  grandeur  of  my 
own  country. 

Here,  to-day,  at  this  reception,  the  poetry  of  these  dreams 
is  recalled  in  the  traditions  of  empire  and  opulence.  Was  I  not  in 
the  real  presence  of  a  race  of  men  and  rulers  who  made  nations 
tremble  with  the  shock  of  their  arms,  and  who,  at  one  time,  bid 
fair  to  gain  universal  sway  !  To  what  strange  fancies  such  a 
thought  gives  birth,  in  the  presence  of  the  Caliph  of  all  the 
Mahometans  ! 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    SULTAN    AT    PRAYERS — SALEMLIK. 

One  of  the  pleasant  excursions  which  not  only  Ministers,  but 
others  who  are  strangers  to  Constantinople,  and  even  the  denizens 
of  that  city,  care  first  and  most  to  make  is  that  on  Fridays  to  the 
neighborhood  of  the  mosque  in  which  the  Sultan  offers  his 
prayers.  Most  of  the  time  while  I  was  at  the  capital  the 
Sultan  was  in  the  habit  of  saying  his  prayers  at  the  mosque  of 
Bechiktash.  But  there  is  in  process  of  erection,  and  nearly 
completed,  a  new  mosque,  which  is  nearer  his  palace  of  Yildiz. 
It  is  on  the  summit  of  the  hills  above  the  Bosporus.  It  is  called 
the  mosque  of  Hamidiea.  It  is  named  after  one  of  the  earlier 
and  most  devout  Sultans.     To  this  mosque  he  often  goes. 

This  ceremony  of  attending  mosque  is  never  omitted,  if  the 
Sultan  be  alive.  It  matters  not  whether  it  hails  or  rains,  whether 
there  be  an  earthquake,  a  plague  or  a  pestilence,  or  personal 
sickness — this  observance  is  one  of  the  scrupulous  duties  of  the 
Sultan,  who  is  at  the  same  time  the  absolute  Caliph  of  the  Faith. 
The  prayer  which  he  offers  cannot  be  said  by  any  one  else  for 
him.  It  is  a  religious  duty  to  be  done  by  him  in  person.  It  is 
reckoned  the  most  honorable  of  his  functions  and  the  greatest  of 
all  his  privileges.  To  omit  his  appearance  on  that  day  would 
almost  provoke  a  riot. 

This  custom  came  into  use  in  the  year  a.  d.  1361.  Then  the 
reigning  Sultan,  Murad  I.,  having  offered  to  give  evidence  before 
the  Mufti  in  a  case  in  which  one  of  his  favorites  was  concerned, 
his  testimony  was  rejected  on  the  ground  that,  according  to  the 
law  of  the  Koran,  no  person  can  be  admitted  as  a  witness  in  a 
religious  court  of  justice  who  has  not  joined  in  common  prayer 
in  the  mosque.  In  acknowledgment  of  the  justice  of  this  de- 
cision, Murad  proceeded,  on  the  following  Friday,  in  great  state,^ 
to  the  mosque.  He  joined  with  the  other  worshippers,  and  per- 
formed his  devotions  as  one  of  their  own  number.  The  custom 
has  since  been  observed  with  the  utmost  strictness  and  regularity^ 

27 


28  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Sultan  Mahmoud  I.,  though  very  ill,  insisted  on  going  to  the 
mosque,  with  the  result  that  on  his  return  to  the  palace  he  fell 
down  dead  at  the  entrance  as  he  was  dismounting  from  his  horse. 
The  same  fatality  happened  to  Sultan  Osman  II.,  who,  heedless 
of  the  advice  of  his  physicians,  left  his  sick-bed  in  order  to 
attend  the  usual  Friday  prayers.  He  returned  safely  to  the 
palace,  but  expired  on  the  following  night. 

The  ceremony  is  not  now  attended  with  as  much  eclat  as  in 
the  early  days,  when  the  Sultan's  servitors  were  dressed  in  velvet 
and  gold,  and  scattered  handsful  of  gold  and  silver  along  his 
path  as  he  passed  on  his  way  to  the  mosque  of  St.  Sofia. 

In  those  early  days,  when  Turkish  power  was  literally  Sub- 
lime, the  far-famed  carpets  of  the  East  were  spread  over  the 
ground,  upon  which  pranced  the  Sultan's  steed.  The  Oriental 
escort,  with  its  flowing  robes,  immense  turbans,  military  music 
and  official  retinue,  has  been  more  or  less  discarded  by  the 
fashions  of  the  present  day,  and  by  the  advancement  of  the  Turk 
himself  in  European  customs. 

When  the  Sultan  attends  prayers  at  the  mosque  the  time  is 
fixed  by  the  Turkish  clock  at  7.  This  means  about  2  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  European  time.  He  generally  comes  in  a  large 
and  elegant  open  carriage.  He  is  accompanied  by  a  trusted 
friend,  the  aged  Namyk  Pasha,  who  is  the  very  pink  of 
courtesy,  and  Osman  Pasha,  the  hero  of  Plevna.  From  five 
to  seven  thousand  troops  usually  keep  the  way  on  these  occa- 
sions. They  come  in  with  bands  of  music  from  all  parts  of 
the  city,  bearing  their  sacred  banners  of  green,  inscribed  with 
Koranic  texts,  and  their  own  regimental  flags.  They  are  in 
line  before  the  Sultan  appears.  Some  of  the  battalions  or 
.regiments  appear  in  fanciful  uniform,  such  as  the  Albanian. 
I  saw  one  regiment  made  up  of  the  Nubians  or  Tunisians  of 
Africa.  They  had  a  corps  of  stalwart  sappers  and  miners,  in 
leathern  aprons  and  huge  battle-axes.  Every  part  of  the  domin- 
ion is  represented  by  the  troops.  They  are  a  strong  body  of 
soldiers — well  officered.  They  have  a  variety  of  uniform.  Their 
fine  music  and  the  esprit  du  corps  of  the  escort  give  something 
more  than  a  religious  aspect  to  the  occasion. 

Those  who  would  see  the  "  Salemlik,"  or  the  Sultan,  as  he 
enters  the  mosque  and  comes  from  it,  should  take  their  stand 
about   noon   either   at  the  guard-house  or  at  the  new  quarters. 


SCEA'ES  AT  SALEMLIK. 


29 


*'  In  the  multitude  of  the  people  is  the  King's  honor." 
The  population  turns  out  en  masse  on  these  occasions.  The 
black-tasselled,  bright-red  fez  cap  gives  its  color  to  the  scene. 
The  general  tone  of  the  uniform,  however,  is  that  of  the  Zouave, 
whose  scarlet  trousers  reach  to  the  knee.  The  soldiers  are  olive- 
colored,  and  bronzed  with  many  a  sun,  and  are  of  splendid  physique. 
As  the  Sultan  enters  the  mosque,  he  is  surrounded  by  dozens  of 
his  officers,  whose  uniforms  glitter  with  a  profusion  of  gold  lace  and 
decorative  orders.  He  is  met  by  the  Imam,  or  Moslem  priest,  at 
the  door.  There  is  no  special  order  about  the  crowd,  except  that 
they  are  kept  more  or  less  in  check  by  the  soldiery.  Carriages, 
horses  and  people  mingle  together  in  confusion.  I  never  saw 
a  drunken  man  nor  any  flagrant  disorder  occur  during  the  cere- 
mony. Many  of  the  carriages  contain  the  wiyes  of  the  Sultan, 
his  children,  cousins  and  nieces,  and  his  mother  and  aunt. 
Diamonds  shine  with  unusual  profusion  upon  the  veiled  beauties. 
Of  course,  there  are  many  women  present  who  are  not  Turkish, 
and,  therefore,  not  dressed  in  the  costume  with  which  the  reader 
will  soon  become  familiar. 

The  Sultan  enters  the  mosque.  All  is  quietude  without,  until 
he  has  finished  his  prayers.  Then  is  heard  a  bugle  note  ;  a  car- 
pet is  laid  down,  and  the  officers,  who  are  his  adjutants.  Minis- 
ters and  others,  mount  their  horses.  They  are  ready  for  the  move- 
ment. The  soldiers  ''present  arms  !"  the  iron  gate  opens,  and 
the  shout  goes  up — "  Padisha  !  Chok  Yasha  !  " — The  Sultan  ! 
Let  him  live  forever !  Sometimes  the  Sultan  is  mounted  on 
a  white  steed,  which  is  appareled  for  the  occasion  ;  but  generally, 
amid  much  salutation,  he  comes  and  returns  in  his  carriage, 
takes  the  reins  himself,  and  drives  to  and  from  the  palace.  His 
people  close  about  him,  and  the  spectacle  is  over. 

You  may  ask  how  he  is  dressed.  I  have  generally  seen  him 
in  a  blue-black  frock  coat,  closely  buttoned,  edged  with  red  cord. 
The  present  Sultan  is  a  graceful  rider,  and  when  on  horseback, 
like  his  fellow-countrymen,  he  shows  to  advantage.  His  title  as 
Sultan  does  not  signify  all  the  power  which  he  possesses  as  an 
absolute  ruler,  but  yet  it  signifies  much.  Padisha  signifies  most. 
It  is  the  chief  and  favorite  title.  It  signifies  Father  of  all  the 
Sovereigns  of  the  Earth.  He  has  other  titles,  such  as  Imam-ul- 
Muslemin— Pontiff  of  Mussulmans;  Alem  Penah— Refuge  of  the 
World.     Any  more  ?     Yes.     Other  titles  are  that  of  "  Lord  of 


30 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


Two  Continents  and  Two  Seas,  King  of  Kings,  High  and  Mighty 
Lord,  Servant  of  the  Two  Holy  Cities,  Shadow  of  God  upon 
Earth;  Hunkiar,  or  Man-Slayer."  Any  more?  Yes,  more  still. 
He  is  called  Ali-Osman  Padishahi — King  of  the  Descendants  of 
Osman  ;  Shahin  Shahi  Alem — King  of  the  Sovereigns  of  the 
Universe  ;  Hudavendighar — Attached  to  God  ;  Shahin  Shahi 
Movazem  ve  Hilloulah — High  King  of  Kings  and  Shadow  of 
God  ;  and,  to  illustrate  the  theocratic  democracy  which  pervades 
the  civil  order  and  the  Mahometan  religion,  he  also  bears  the 
title  of  "  The  Son  of  a  Slave."  He  thus  combines  with  the 
highest  human  exaltation  the  lowliest  humiliation.  It  is  the 
law  of  the  Koran.  He  is  the  son  of  a  slave-mother,  and,  therefore, 
should  he  not  be  humble  ?  He  is  the  Divine  representative  of 
Mahomet,  and  the  father  of  his  people,  and,  therefore,  should 
he  not  be  exalted  ?  His  family  line  runs  back  with  unbroken 
links  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  though  he  may 
not  be  as  great  in  war  and  as  rugged  in  manner  as  Orchan 
or  Sulieman,  or  as  stately  and  tall  as  his  brother,  Abdul  Aziz, 
or  perhaps  as  kingly  in  theatric  style  as  his  father,  Abdul 
Medjid,  he  has  a  splendid  eye  and  a  royal  mien,  becoming  the 
lineage  of  Osman.  His  face  is  pale,  and  its  general  contour 
and  features  indicate  a  man  who  is  amiable,  shrewd,  vigilant  and 
able. 

Perhaps  the  most  sacred  place  in  the  neighborhood  of  Con- 
stantinople is  the  historical  site  of  the  mosque  of  Job,  or  Eyoub. 
It  is  situated  at  some  distance  from  the  northwest  corner  of  the 
Staraboul  triangle,  a  few  yards  from  the  Golden  Horn.  It  is  a 
hilly  spot,  selected  for  burial  purposes.  The  mosque  is  never 
shown  except  to  the  faithful.  It  marks  the  burying-place  of  the 
great  leader  of  the  first  Arab  attempts  upon  the  city,  and  therefore 
it  has  always  been  kept  sacred  from  the  foot  of  the  infidel. 
Within  the  mosque  is  the  green  banner  of  the  prophet,  only  used 
in  great  emergencies,  as  when  Mahmoud  II.  carried  it  before  his 
troops  in  their  assault  upon  the  Janizaries,  when  he  destroyed 
them.  Within  it  is  treasured  the  sacred  sword  of  Osman,  with 
which  the  Sultan  is  girt  when  he  is  invested  with  power.  It  is 
the  symbol  of  office  and  the  pride  of  the  Ottoman  race.  When 
poor  Murad  V.  was  called  to  the  throne,  after  the  tragic  death  of 
Abdul  Aziz,  in  1876,  he  was  not  allowed  to  assume  this  sword. 
He  was   non  compos.     Upon  the  last  day  of  August,   1876,  his 


COURTESIES  OF  THE  SULTAN. 


31 


brother,  the  present  Sultan,  Abdul  Hamid  II.,  after  much  sincere 
protest,  took  upon  himself  the  Imperial  duty  with  the  sword  of 
Osman.  This  ceremony  is  not  witnessed  by  the  outside  world, 
and,  therefore,  I  shall  hereafter  draw  upon  my  pencil  and  fancy 
for  a  picturesque  description  of  the  scene. 

Although  the  Sultan  is  thus  exalted  as  the  successor  of 
Mahomet,  it  is  permitted,  after  the  Oriental  method,  to  any  one 
who  approaches,  to  present  a  petition  to  him  upon  this  occasion 
of  prayer. 

At  the  new  mosque  of  Hamidiea,  where  he  occasionally 
worships,  there  is  a  lattice  through  which  he  can  see  his  troops 
marching  ;  and,  by  the  aid  of  a  glass,  he  observes  the  guests  who 
are  assembled  at  the  guard-house  to  do  him  honor.  If  he  desires 
to  confer  with  or  to  honor  any  of  these  guests,  he  charges  one  of 
his  Chamberlains  to  convey  to  the  personage  his  greetings.  This 
occasion  is  seized  upon  to  indicate  his  cordial  good-will  toward 
the  foreign  Ministers  or  distinguished  people  who  may  be 
sojourning  in  Constantinople.  Oftentimes,  these  occasions  are 
utilized  to  present  colors  to  the  new  regiments,  and  sometimes 
speech-making  is  indulged  in.  Thereupon  the  flag  is  unfurled, 
and  an  aide-de-camp  delivers,  on  behalf  of  the  Sultan,  a  speech 
whose  burden  is  not  only  patriotic,  but  religious  and  opulent 
of  Oriental  rhetoric.  The  responses  are  full  of  devotion  to 
his  Imperial  person  and  the  Holy  Faith. 

It  is  difficult  to  praise  without  undue  encomium  ;  especially  to 
praise  those  who  have  been  unusually  affable  and  kind  to  the 
eulogist.  I  feel  this  difficulty  in  regard  to  the  Sultan,  hut  I 
think  everyone  who  has  come  in  contact  with  the  present  sover- 
eign of  Turkey  will  allow  me  to  express,  with  becoming  earnest- 
ness, my  opinion  of  his  high  merits  and  noble  character.  To 
ascertain  these  merits  and  appreciate  his  character,  there  must 
be  some  familiarity  with  his  daily  work  and  thought. 

How  does  he  administer  his  realm,  with  its  multiform  inter- 
ests of  mosque  and  state  and  its  varieties  of  population  and  creed  ? 

In  the  first  place,  he  is  an  early  riser.  After  he  leaves 
his  seraglio  and  has  partaken  of  a  slight  repast,  his  secre- 
taries wait  upon  him  with  their  portfolios.  He  peruses  all  the 
official  correspondence  and  current  reports.  He  gives  up  his 
time  until  noon  to  work  of  this  character.  Then  his  breakfast  is 
served.     After  that,  he  makes  a  detour  of  his  gardens  and  park, 


32 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


SUL  TAN'S  RECREA  TION.  3  •> 

looks  in  upon  his  aviaries,  perhaps  stirs  up  his  menagerie,  makes 
an  inspection  of  his  two  hundred  horses  in  their  fine  stables, 
indulges  his  little  daughters  in  a  row  upon  the  fairy  lake  which 
he  has  had  constructed,  and,  it  may  be,  attends  a  performance  in 
the  little  theatre  provided  for  his  children  in  the  palace. 

At  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  having  accomplished  most  of 
his  official  work,  he  mounts  his  favorite  horse  for  a  ride  in  the 
park.  '  This  steed,  as  I  have  him  pictured  from  the  Sultan's  own 
album,  is  a  war-scarred  veteran. 

This  park  is  very  extensive,  comprising  many  thousand  acres. 
It  is  surrounded  by  high  walls  and  protected  by  the  soldiery.  Often- 
times, being  a  fine  shot,  he  tries  his  aim  upon  some  of  the  wild 
fowl  which  are  decoyed  upon  the  waters  of  the  park.  He  is  at 
the  palace  for  dinner  at  7.  He  dines  after  the  European 
method.  It  would  be  a  task  to  make  a  catalogue  of  the  gold  and 
silver  candelabra  and  massive  epergnes  which,  with  their  flowers 
and  fruits,  decorate  the  table.  Oftentimes  he  has  company  pres- 
ent. On  such  occasions  his  First  Chamberlain,  Munir  Pasha, 
acts  as  interpreter,  standing  behind  His  Majesty's  gold  chair. 
He  offers  wine  to  his  guests,  but  he  indulges  only  in  water.  He 
observes  the  precepts  of  the  Koran.  The  dinner  is  accompanied 
with  music.  A  fine  military  band  plays  during  this  meal.  The 
servants  are  dressed  in  scarlet,  like  the  old  English  brigadiers, 
■with  gold  epaulettes.  You  would  think  they  were  mutes,  by  the 
quiet  way  in  which  they  serve.  It  is  understood,  of  course,  that 
the  wives  of  the  Sultan  are  never  at  the  table.  The  wives  of 
others  are  frequently  invited,  but  on  such  occasions  the  Sultan 
does  not  preside.  If  the  Sultan  desires  to  converse  with  any  one, 
there  is  a  convenient  room,  where  cigarettes  and  coffee  assist  the 
conversation.  Humor  is  sometimes  indulged  in  upon  these 
occasions.  There  are  the  antics  of  the  court  dwarf  and  some 
tricks  of  the  juggler  or  conjurer.  But  it  is  all  over  by  10  o'clock. 
The  Imperial  carriages  are  then  at  the  door.  The  guests  are 
attended  to  them  by  the  Chamberlains.  A  troop  of  horse  some- 
times accompanies  the  carriages.  After  the  guests  depart  the 
Sultan  resumes  his  administrative  work,  which  not  only  concerns 
the  internal  but  the  external  affairs  of  his  empire.  He  is  one  of 
the  most  industrious,  painstaking,  honest,  conscientious  and 
vigilant  rulers  of  the  world.  He  is  amiable  and  just  withal.  His 
every  word  betokens  a  good  heart  and  sagacious  head. 


34  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

The  comment  is  often  made  in  respect  to  the  present  Sultan, 
Abdul-Hamid,  that  he  is  timid;  that  he  will  not  expose  himself 
to  the  danger  of  assassination;  and  that  he  has  withdrawn  to  the 
suburbs  of  the  city  on  the  European  shore,  where,  protected  by  his 
soldiers,  he  lives  in  privacy  and  security.  It  is  alleged  that  he 
resides  in  a  fortress,  although  nominally  a  palace.  I  have  yet 
to  see  in  my  observations  of  the  Sultan  and  his  actions  any  such 
evidence  of  fear.  It  might  well  be,  considering  the  events  which 
occurred  when  Abdul-Aziz  was  assassinated,  and  Murad,  his 
brother  was  imprisoned,  that  the  present  Sultan  would  act  with 
caution;  but  upon  every  Friday  is  he  not  seen  ?  In  these  days 
of  progressive  science,  if  any  one  chooses  to  use  the  appliances 
of  chemistry  to  destroy  his  life,  is  there  not  plenty  of  opportunity  ? 
When  he  appears  at  the  mosque  is  there  not  always  an  immense 
crowd  ?  His  guard  is  more  from  custom  and  for  pageantry  than 
for  protection.  All  Constantinople,  and  all  the  strangers  within  its 
gates,  are  on  hand  to  see  him  drive  his  own  team  or  ride  his  own 
steed.  The  multitude  of  both  sexes  throng  upon  the  hills.  The 
dignitaries  of  the  empire  and  the  Pashas,  who  are  supposed  to 
be  jealous  of  his  power,  and  who  lose  and  gain  offices  with  every 
change  of  the  moon,  are  constantly  near  him.  This  proves  that 
there  is  no  dread  of  assassination  quivering  in  the  Sultan's  heart. 
It  is  one  of  the  fantasies  of  the  ready  writer  of  cablegrams. 

The  Salemlik  of  the  Sultan,  which  I  have  endeavored  to  pict- 
ure, has  been  well  painted  by  a  native  artist,  Hamdi  Bey. 
It  was  painted  for  one  of  the  citizens  of  New  York,  Mr. 
Elliot  F.  Shephard,  who  cultivates  both  art  and  religion.  It 
presents  His  Majesty  driving  in  an  open  carriage,  accompanied 
by  the  venerable  Namyk  Pasha,  of  long  and  honorable  service, 
and  Osman  Pasha,  the  hero  of  Plevna;  but  it  cannot,  and  does 
not,  represent  the  enthusiastic  cheering  with  which  he  is  received 
at  the  conclusion  of  his  prayer,  or  the  other  proofs  of  the  good- 
will of  his  people. 

It  is,  I  think,  a  favorite  relief  and  pastime  of  the  Sultan 
to  show  himself  to  the  people  in  this  quasi  religious  way.  It  mat- 
ters not  whether  the  Ministers  who  are  waiting  to  see  him  are  from 
Japan  or  Russia,  China  or  America,  Persia  or  Spain — he  is  al- 
ways gracious  with  his  courtesies.  And  what  a  splendid  attrac- 
tion it  is  for  the  populace  of  Constantinople  !  What  a  fete  day, 
once  every  week  !     What  variety  in  the  uniforms  of  the  soldiers  ! 


END  OF  THE  SALEMLIK.  35 

What  a  changeable  aspect  the  soldiers  present  from  week  to  week  ! 
to-day  a  regiment  from  the  Soudan,  to-morrow  a  battalion  from 
Albania.  Each  Friday  there  is  a  new  greeting  to  new  people  of 
strange  and  distant  parts  of  the  world.  He  is  always  ready,  at 
this  religious  season,  to  bestow  favors  and  to  be  pleased  with  the 
devotion  of  the  Oriental  people,  and  especially  those  of  his  own 
dominions. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    SULTAN     IN  HIS    YILDIZ    KIOSK PRESENTATION    OF  AMERICAN 

BOOKS. 

During  my  sojourn  at  Constantinople,  and  while  cultivating 
the  graces  which  belong  to  the  Envoy  who,  according  to  Lord 
Chesterfield,  seeks  the  success  of  his  mission,  I  found  it  was  not 
only  not  at  all  improper,  but  thoroughly  Oriental,  to  indulge  in 
some  gift  making  and  taking.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  little  per- 
sonal courtesies  of  this  kind,  but  of  those  of  an  official  quality. 
Indeed,  as  early  as  December  31,  1881,  the  Sultan  desired  ta 
have  sent  to  him  from  the  United  States,  and  at  his  own  expense, 
an  album  with  every  description  of  fire-arms  in  photograph. 
There  is  nothing  which  he  has  inherited  from  his  ancestors,  to- 
which  he  clings  with  such  pertinacity,  as  the  desire  to  examine  all 
inventions  pertaining  to  artillery,  and  the  various  armaments 
and  explosives  connected  with  warfare.  To  fulfill  this  expression 
of  his  wish  was  a  part  of  my  pleasure  while  serving  near  his 
court.  A  more  superb  photographic  album  of  the  arms  and 
inventions  from  America  could  not  have  been  desired.  It  was 
a  recent  collection  up  to  date.  Besides,  he  desired  stereoscopic 
and  other  views  of  the  scenes,  objects  and  buildings  which  are 
considered  the  most  interesting  in  the  United  States.  These,, 
also,  it  was  my  privilege,  six  years  after  his  request,  to 
present  to  His  Majesty  in  the  name  of  the  President.  The  Sultan 
is  also  fond  of  trees  of  all  kinds,  as  the  cultivation  of  the  grounds 
of  Yildiz,  amounting  to  several  thousand  acres,  amply  illustrates. 
He  desired  a  collection  of  American  fruit-bearing  trees  and 
shrubs,  and  also  specimens  of  our  various  evergreen  trees.  The 
latter  he  desired  packed  in  such  a  way  as  to  preserve  them  for 
setting  out  in  Turkey,  with  a  likelihood  of  their  growth.  General 
Wallace  thought  there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  gratifying  these 
requests  of  the  Sultan.  He  suggested  that  our  Government 
should  bear  the  expense,  and  that  they  should  be  a  present 
from  the  President  to  the  Sultan,  as  a  manifestation  of  good-will^ 

35 


PRESEA^TS  FROM  THE  PRESIDENT.  3  7 

■"  at  once  delicate  and  happily  expressive."  I  quote  the  language 
■of  the  auther  of  "  Ben-Hur," 

Nothing  was  done  in  pursuance  of  these  suggestions,  although 
many  promises  were  made  to  make  an  effort  to  comply  with  the 
wish  of  the  Sultan.  Surely  it  would  be  gross  remissness,  after  the 
expression  of  the  wish  of  the  Sultan,  if  the  sovereigns  of  the  United 
States  represented  by  our  Government  should  not  heed  it.  But 
it  was  not  heeded  for  a  long  time.  After  the  Sultan  had  paid  for 
the  docking  and  repairing  of  the  United  States  ship  of  war 
Quinnebaug,  I  took  the  liberty  in  the  fall  of  1885  of  recalling 
to  the  attention  of  the  home  authorities  the  request  and  promise 
in  several  missives.  Mr.  Bayard,  the  Secretary  of  State,  at  onee 
gave  a  gracious  and  favorable  reply.  He  did  not  stop  there  :  he  did 
better  ;  he  proceeded  to  execute  what  had  been  promised. 

In  some  meetings  which  I  had  with  the  Sultan,  and  in  reply  to  his 
curiosity  as  to  the  miraculous  growth  of  our  own  land  in  population 
and  resources,  I  told  him  that  the  only  way  in  which  he  could 
possibly  understand  our  advancement  would  be  to  take  the  salient 
points  out  of  our  Census  reports,  and  especially  the  Tenth  Cen- 
sus (1880),  have  them  suitably  translated,  and  apply  them  to 
his  own  land.  He  would  thus  see  what  an  advertisement  a  good 
census  would  be  of  the  vast  resources  of  his  own  empire.  Hav- 
ing been  Chairman  of  the  Census  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  which  reported  the  bill,  and,  I  may  say,  engi- 
neered it  through  the  House,  by  which  our  new  system  was  inau- 
gurated, I  did  not  feel  incompetent  to  talk  with  the  Sultan  on  the 
subject.  As  a  result  of  these  communications,  I  was  happy  to 
report  to  my  Government  that  two  boxes  containing  photographic 
and  stereoscopic  views  of  scenery,  edifices,  etc.,  in  the  United 
States,  together  with  a  complete  set  of  the  Census  reports,  with 
the  Census  law  and  instructions  and  blanks,  were  received  at 
Constantinople.  Having  informed  the  Sultan  of  my  desire  to 
present  these  articles  in  behalf  of  the  President,  His  Majesty 
accorded  me  a  reception  in  the  afternoon  of  May  16,  1886.  The 
boxes  were  borne  from  the  Legation  by  a  stalwart  hamal  to  the 
palace,  and  there  opened  under  the  eyes  of  eager  officials,  who 
seemed  to  think  that  there  was  something  in  them — something 
strange  and  curious.  The  hamal  of  Constantinople  is  able  to 
carry  six  hundred  pounds  weight  of  material.  Had  he  known  that 
he  was  bearing  the  ponderous   statistics  of  over  ten  years  of 


38  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


HAMAL  CARRYING  UNITED  STATES  CENSUS  TO  YILDIZ. 


EXAMINING  THE  GIFTS.  39 

American  growth,  he  might  have  staggered  under  the  heat  and 
burden  of  the  day.  What  a  chance  was  here  for  the  reporter  of 
the  American  press,  had  he  but  known  that  the  figures  of  our 
condition  and  advancement  were  laboring  up  the  high  hill  ot 
Yildiz  for  the  instruction  of  an  effete  dynasty  !  i 

The  boxes  were  opened  on  the  first  floor  of  the  palace, 
in  one  of  the  side  rooms,  and  their  contents  carried  to  a 
kiosk  in  the  midst  of  the  beautiful  private  garden  of  the  Sultan, 
which  is  situated  on  the  summit  of  Yildiz — the  palace  of  the 
"  Star."  In  this  kiosk  there  was  also  a  library.  I  present  a  pict- 
ure of  the  kiosk,  though  I  cannot,  in  the  same  connection,  pre- 
sent a  picture  of  the  scene  that  followed.  The  volumes  in  the 
library  are  of  the  same  red  binding  as  the  portfolios  containing 
the  photographs,  so  that  at  once  the  entente  cordiale  is  estab- 
lished between  the  various  volumes,  there  being  harmony  in 
their  toilets. 

In  making  the  presentation,  I  had  the  honor  to  remark  that  no 
such  representation  could  be  had  of  any  country  as  that  which  the 
President  had  thus  presented.  The  natural  scenery  displayed 
what  God  had  done  for  our  land,  and  the  views  of  edifices,  bridges 
and  other  structures  what  man,  under  the  conditions  of  our 
American  life,  had  done  in  a  century.  The  Census  returns  gave, 
in  statistical,  tabular  and  picturesque  form,  the  grand  results  of 
our  American  policy  and  civilization. 

The  Sultan  was  delighted  at  the  elegance,  uniqueness  and 
magnificence  of  the  gift.  After  adjusting  the  stereoscope — on 
which  was  inscribed  upon  a  silver  plate  :  "  From  the  President 
of  the  United  States  to  His  Imperial  Majesty,  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey " —  he  selected  some  of  the  views  from  the  hundreds 
before  him.  They  elicited  expressions  of  delight  and  wonder. 
The  photographs  of  the  "  Red  Men  "  attracted  his  eager  atten- 
tion. He  asked  many  questions  as  to  their  origin,  their  move- 
ments, and  their  present  numbers,  condition  and  government.  I 
could  see  that  he  surmised  them  to  be  of  that  Mongol  race — 
which  in  the  cycles  of  history  clustered  in  "  Tartar  tribes  "  on 
the  territory  between  the  Himalayas  and  the  Mediterranean — 
out  of  which,  as  the  most  energetic,  came  the  Seljukian  Turks, 
who  almost  conquered  Europe,  as  well  as  a  large  part  of  Asia  and 
Africa.  I  endeavored  to  explain  to  him  the  relations  of  our 
Indians  to  the  Federal  Government — as  wards — of  whom  it  was 


40 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  LV  TURKEY. 


ARE  OUR  RED  MEN  TARTARS? 


41 


the  guardian.  He  was  anxious  to  know  if  they  amounted  to 
much,  and  how  we  provided  for  them.  I  explained,  as  well  as  I 
could,  the  effects  of  white  raids,  whisky  and  land- grabbing,  as 
well  as  the  •'  reservation "  plan,  and  the  probability  that  by 
intermingling  with  the  white  population,  they  would  in  time,  and 
like  our  other  races,  be  absorbed  in  our  composite  system  of 
society.  The  towns  and  houses  of  the  Zuni  Indians  attracted 
his  attention,  for  they  are  counterparts  of  certain  towns  in  Asia 
Minor,  which  I  have  just  seen  in  photographs.  Besides,  are  not 
the  Indians  themselves  Tartaric  in  custom  and  costume,  and 
have  they  not  an  Oriental  veneration  for  the  sun  ? 

The  Sultan  asked  curiously — pointing  significantly  to  the 
minaret  of  the  new  mosque  visible  from  the  kiosk — if  they 
believed  in  one  God.  I  gave  him  a  brief  outline  of  the  natural 
religion  of  these  people,  who  have  almost  ceased  to  be  interest- 
ing to  ourselves  except  in  romances,  but  who,  as  these  photo- 
graphs show,  are  a  source  of  infinite  interest  to  the  ethnologist. 

In  thinking  over  these  incidents,  and  the  Sultan's  query 
as  to  the  religion  of  our  Red  men,  I  recalled  the  posture  of 
Mahometan  prayer,  and  the  listening  Moslem,  his  hand  to  his 
ears,  in  honor  of  the  All-Audient  Allah,  together  with  the  verse 
of  Longfellow  in  his  Hiawatha  : 

"Gitche  Manito  the  Mighty, 
He,  the  Master  of  Life,  was  painted 
As  an  egg,  with  points  projecting 
To  the  four  winds  of  the  heavens. 
Everywhere  is  the  Great  Spirit, 
Was  the  meaning  of  this  symbol." 

Indeed,  the  Sultan  not  long  since  indicated  his  strange  if  not 
hereditary  preference  toward  the  tribes  of  other  countries,  who 
perhaps  were  more  or  less  akin  to  the  Mongolian  or  Tartaric 
tribe  from  which  his  ancestors  were  descended,  by  honoring  an 
American  who  presented  some  Australian  "Indians"  for  his 
observation  and  delight.  Had  I  been  in  Constantinople  at  the 
time,  I  think  I  should  have  put  in  a  caveat  against  them  in  behalf 
of  the  noble  red  men  of  America  !  An  Australian,  who  is 
indigenous  to  the  soil  of  that  island,  is  always  associated  in  my 
mind  with  the  kangaroo,  some  of  whose  legs  are  inadequate.  In 
some  electioneering  performances  in  the  "  wild  West,"  when  I 


42 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


A  MOSLEM    AT  PRAYER. 


CENSUS  EXPLAINED. 


43 


first  ran  for  Congress,  a  company  paraded  on  my  own  domain  at 
a  mass  meeting.  They  were  known  as  the  Australian  children, 
and  were  made  to  dance  under  the  cowhide  of  the  exhibitor,  and 
under  the  delightful  inspiration  of  gingerbread  if  they  got 
through  safely.  I  was  asked  by  the  proprietor  of  these 
Australian  children  to  give  a  name  to  their  chief.  Without 
knowing  the  full  significance  of  tiie  meaning,  I  named  him 
Cambyses.  The  Orient  had  even  then  its  fascination  for  me,  and 
the  Australian,  by  some  strange  permutation,  became  its  repre- 
sentative. 

Nothing  better  could  have  been  selected  to  interest  the  intelli- 
gent Orientalist  than  those  rare  portraits  of  the  chiefs  of  our 
American  Indians,  whose  origin  Science  may  some  day  indubita- 
bly trace  to  the  Mongolian  "hive"  of  Central  Asia.  Nearly 
two  hours  of  that  beautiful  May  afternoon  passed  in  thus 
reviewing  the  aborigines,  scenes  and  resources  of  our  country. 

Not  the  less  attractive  to  the  Sultan  were  the  Census  volumes. 
Just  before  I  went  to  Egypt,  in  February,  I  had  a  conversation 
with  him  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  census  for  his  dominions.  I 
was  not  unprepared  to  make  the  endeavor  to  explain  somewhat 
the  features  of  our  system,  and  its  results,  as  embodied  in  the 
fourteen  books  which  the  President  had  forwarded.  The  afflu- 
ence of  these  returns — considered  as  an  advertisement  merely 
of  our  values  and  growth — evoked  the  Sultan's  wonder.  He 
specially  examined  the  volumes  on  Forestry  and  Architecture,  and 
made  some  notes  for  his  own  purposes.  He  referred  to  his  love 
of  trees,  whereupon  I  expressed  the  hope  that  his  wish  as  to  the 
fruit  -  bearing  and  evergreen  trees  from  America  might  yet  be 
gratified. 

Each  census  volume  was  explained  to  him  seriatim — agri- 
culture, petroleum,  minerals,  manufactures,  population,  cotton, 
debts  and  taxation,  &c.,  and  so  on  to  the  last  published.  He 
marveled  that  with  such  abundant  information  as  checks  on 
human  frailty,  we  should  ever  have  peculations,  spoliations,  or 
maladministration.  He  concluded  that,  with  such  data  for 
administrative  policies,  we  could  not  be  other  than  prosperous.  He 
asked  me  if  we  had  dishonesty  in  administration.  I  said  that  our 
civil  war — like  all  other  wars — had  begotten  frauds  and  corrup- 
tion, which  time  and  better  administrations  had  abated.  He 
congratulated  himself  fervently  on  his   own   recent   policies  of 


44  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

peace  and  forbearance,  by  which  he  had  saved  so  much  of  taxa- 
tion, grief  and  trouble  to  his  people. 

I  had  the  honor,  with  much  pride,  thus  to  show  the  variety 
and  completeness  of  the  Tenth  Census,  with  which,  as  statists 
of  Germany,  France  and  England  have  said,  there  is  nothing 
comparable  in  the  annals  of  other  nations,  and  certainly  nothing 
of  the  kind  in  Oriental  countries.  These  volumes  not  only  dis- 
play the  physical  features  of  our  country,  by  table  and  picture, 
but  its  rapid  development  and  its  political  history,  of  which 
those  features  are  a  factor.  The  progress  of  settlements  are  here 
traced  across  mountains  and  valleys;  the  population  with  its 
variety  of  race  and  nativity  ;  its  educational,  benevolent  and 
religious  conditions  ;  its  occupations  and  mortality;  its  industries, 
finance,  commerce,  wealth,  debt,  taxation,  expenditure  and 
revenues — all  as  data  for  social  science  and  political  order,  and 
in  such  detail  as  to  bewilder,  if  they  were  not  so  methodically 
arranged. 

These  elements  pass  in  review  before  this  autocratic  ruler 
of  forty  millions  of  people,  who,  with  intelligent  grasp,  compre- 
hends their  utility,  and  the  need  of  their  application  to  his  own 
country.  Then  he  reminds  me  of  our  conversation  about  a 
census  for  his  6wn  country,  and  said  that  he  had  directed  his 
Grand  Vizier,  Kiamil  Pasha,  to  organize  a  commission  to  begin 
the  work.  He  was  anxious  as  to  its  cost.  I  told  him  that  ours 
was  limited,  by  the  first  act,  to  three  million  dollars,  or  about 
seven  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  but  that  the  publica- 
tions nearly  doubled  this  sum;  and  that  for  his  purposes,  and  as 
the  initiative,  it  was  not  necessary  to  spend  a  million  of  dollars  to 
present  a  fair  summary  of  the  Turkish  elements  of  p>opulation 
and  wealth.  He  asked  me  if  I  would  aid  it  by  my  advice,  when 
the  commission  was  formed.  To  which  I  responded  that,  con- 
sistent with  my  duties  to  my  country  and  health,  I  would  do  so, 
if  the  President  did  not  object.  The  law,  tl)e  instructions  to 
superintendents,  enumerators,  and  blanks  for  returns,  and  the 
modus  operandi  of  special  experts,  were  fully  detailed  by  the 
printed  papers  in  the  envelopes  which  were  in  the  box.  These 
envelopes  he  sealed  with  his  own  hand,  and  gave  them  direction 
at  once.  So  that  probably  Turkey  may,  if  peace  prevail,  have 
a  census  of  her  own. 

Never  was  there  such  a  desideratum  for  a  country.     For  ex- 


THE  SULTAN'S  THANKS! 


45 


ample  :  As  to  the  population  of  Constantinople — no  one  can  tell 
what  it  is,  whether  one  or  two  million,  much  less  of  what  ele- 
ments it  is  composed.  It  is  the  greatest  seat  of  commerce  in  the 
Eastern  world.  Its  industries  are  manifold  and  various,  and 
yet,  there  is  no  local  data  worth  having,  either  for  taxation  or 
administration,  nor  statistical  returns  of  any  kind. 

The  afternoon  passed  away,  with  constant  expressions  from 
the  Sultan  of  his  obligations,  and  thanks  for  these  remarkable 
gifts.  I  was  charged  to  convey  to  the  President  His  Majesty's 
high  regard  and  esteem,  and  his  thanks  for  this  thoughtful  and 
elegant  present. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  delight  which  this  peculiar  present 
gave  to  the  Sultan,  he  was  pleased  to  direct  his  Chamber- 
lain— Hadji-Ali-Bey — to  show  me  about  the  grounds  of  his 
private  park,  whose  beautiful  arrangement  of  lake  and  fount- 
ain, mound,  hill  and  vale,  is  only  equalled  by  the  prospect  of 
the  Bosporus  below,  and  the  Asiatic  mountains  beyond.  To 
emphasize  his  delight  still  more,  he  was  so  courteous  as  to  invite 
my  wife  and  myself  to  dine  with  him  at  the  palace.  But  this 
deserves  a  chapter  by  itself. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SOCIAL  UFE  AT   CONSTANTINOPLE — A    STATE     DINNER    AND     DEC- 
ORATIONS. 

It  is  not  very  easy  to  define  what  society  is.  Perhaps  the 
simplest  definition  is  that  it  is  social  and  friendly  intercourse. 
If  it  be  thought  impossible  to  have  such  intercourse  in  Turkey, 
owing  to  the  various  races  of  its  population,  its  many  faiths  and 
the  seclusion  of  the  Mahometan  women,  certainly  I  have  not 
found  it  so.  There  is  much  visiting  by  the  Turkish  women 
among  themselves,  both  in  person  and  by  proxy.  They  seek  on 
every  occasion  to  make  visits  of  salutation,  condolence  and  con- 
gratulation. They  make  visits  when  children  are  bom,  when 
people  are  married,  and  when  people  die.  They  visit  much  in 
the  evening  during  the  religious  season,  when  in  fact  there  is 
more  freedom  for  the  Turkish  women  than  at  other  times.  But 
as  to  the  enjoyments  of  social  life,  as  we  regard  them — 
where  the  amenities  and  delights  of  intercourse  are  elevating  and 
instructive — these  do  not  strictly  belong  to  the  Turks  of  the 
capital. 

Can  such  a  congeries  of  men  and  women,  without  the  same 
nationality  or  creed,  have  that  common  interest  which  creates  a 
social  order  ?  In  the  other  capitals  of  Europe  where  courts  exist, 
there  is  always  a  grand  centre.  There  is  a  big  fly-wheel,  as  it 
were,  by  which  the  lesser  machines  of  social  order  are  regulated 
and  moved.  But  owing  to  the  reserve  of  the  social  system  of 
Turkey  this  social  centre  is  missing.  Even  the  Sultan,  notwith- 
standing his  word  is  law,  does  not  undertake  to  exercise  any  social 
power,  except  now  and  then  by  a  dinner  to  the  Cabinet,  to  an 
Ambassador,  or  to  some  of  the  oflBcers  of  the  palace.  His  life  is 
passed  as  the  slave  of  his  people.  It  is  a  course  of  official 
drudgery  from  early  rising  to  late  retiring.  He  has  no  time  for 
society.  If  it  be  said  that  he  keeps  aloof  from  social  pleasures 
because  of  timidity  or  fear,  I  deny  the  statement.  He  is,  as  I 
have  said,  always  seen  publicly  once  a  week.     Very  little  care  is 

46 


IS  THERE  TURKISH  SOCIETY?  47 

taken  to  protect  him  from  the  observation  or  the  approach  of 
the  populace.  He  is  always  received  with  enthusiasm,  and  is 
€asy  and  frank  in  responding  to  it.  Passing  between  lines  of 
troops,  with  crowds  of  military  officers  and  Pashas,  and  ladies  of 
the  harem  in  their  carriages,  and  amid  the  noise  of  the  streets, 
drowned  somewhat  by  martial  music,  he  does  not  look  a  bit  like 
the  thin-faced,  grizzly  bearded,  pale  man,  nervously  fluttering 
his  hand  before  his  face  by  way  of  salute,  hurrying  into  the 
mosque,  and  giving  himself  time  only  to  throw  a  half-frightened 
glance  around  him,  and  soon  lost  to  view  before  he  can  be  well 
seen;  yet  it  is  the  custom  of  European  writers  thus  to  represent 
him.  He  is  not  a  grizzly  bearded  man,  nor  is  his  mien  one  of  pale 
timidity.  He  is  the  head  of  a  State,  and  is  always  caring  for  his 
people.  Since  he  is  not  the  head  of  society,  so  called,  no  other 
Turk  can  assume  that  position. 

The  truth  is,  the  Turk  is  too  quiet  and  reflective  for  the  but- 
terfly work  of  society.  He  is  reproached  by  the  **  dudes"  and 
popinjays  who  move  in  some  of  the  Legations,  because  he  likes 
old  and  kindly  ways  and  because,  instead  of  devoting  himself  to 
a  club  or  to  frivolity,  he  goes  home  and  takes  a  contemplative 
«moke  with  his  family,  or  invites  some  of  his  neighbors  to  come 
and  smoke  with  him  and  listen  to  the  stories  told  in  the  Salemlik. 
That  society  which  New  York,  London,  Paris,  Vienna  and  St. 
Petersburg  furnish,  is  not  at  all  akin  to  this  home  sociality.  The 
Turk  goes  to  bed  early — with  the  chickens.  He  rises  early.  His 
good  old-fashioned  ways  are  incompatible  with  the  unprofitable 
social  regime.  Sometimes  the  Ministers  and  many  State  officials, 
including  the  Grand  Vizier,  attend  tfie  receptions  given  by  the 
Foreign  Ministers,  but  they  seem  to  be  more  or  less  out  of  place. 
They  are  observant,  never  loquacious,  and  always  reserved  and 
•self-contained.  There  can  be  no  great  social  tendency  in  a  dem- 
ocratic country  like  Turkey,  where  there  is  neither  hereditary  nor 
other  nobility.  Besides,  r:ches  take  to  themselves  wings  and  fly 
away  from  Turk  and  Turkish  homes  more  promptly  than  in 
other  countries.  Very  few  Turks  there  are  who  are  very  rich,  or 
who  keep  their  riches  very  long.  There  is  no  law  of  primogeni- 
ture ;  so  that  families  are  not  kept  up  in  state  and  style  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  to  lead  society  or  to  govern  and  grace  it 
with  their  exceptional  presence.  When  such  a  man  as  Hobart 
Pasha   moved   around   in   Turkish   circles,  or   such   an  elegant 


48  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

gentleman  as  Rustem  Pasha,  the  ex-Governor  of  the  Lebanon,  now 
Minister  to  England,  used  to  leave  his  plain  home,  to  spend  an 
evening  with  a  European  friend,  there  was  an  occasional  interest 
in  Turkish  circles  of  a  social  kind  ;  but  Rustem  Pasha  was  an 
Italian,  though  a  faithful  officer  of  His  Majesty,  and  Hobart 
Pasha  was  an  Englishman.  The  Greeks,  Armenians  and  Levan- 
tines do  not  lead  in  the  social  order.  Their  wealth,  which  many 
of  them  have  in  abundance,  has  not  much  weight  in  the  social 
hierarchy. 

Is  there  any  aristocracy  of  intellect  or  art  in  Constantinople  ? 
There  is  one  Turkish  painter — Hamdi  Bey.  His  pictures  are 
greatly  valued.  There  is  now  and  then  an  editor,  who,  if  his  lucu- 
brations are  printed,  and  if  he  does  not  fall  under  the  censorship, 
may  be  accounted  a  literary  man,  and  this  is  all  there  is  of  it.  There 
is  an  aristocracy  of  money,  and  yet  not  of  society.  A  leading  man 
in  Pera,  whose  splendid  home  upon  the  Bosporus  is  only  equalled 
by  the  elegant  entertainments  at  his  mansion  in  Pera,  is  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Ottoman  Bank — Mr.  Foster.  He  represents  a  social 
coterie.  It  is  gradually  being  merged  with  that  of  the  dominant 
social  people;  I  mean  the  Foreign  Ministers. 

It  is  not  at  all  true,  as  is  generally  supposed,  that  there  is 
much  uncharitableness  and  jealousy  between  the  different  em- 
bassies— a  German  set  here,  a  French  set  there,  and  an  Austrian 
set  yonder,  or  a  special  Russian  set  under  the  direction  of  the 
gifted  Russian  Ambassador.  So  far  as  I  could  observe,  there  were 
the  kindest  relations  among  all  the  Ministers;  and  yet  they  are  a 
body  by  themselves.  They  enjoy  one  another's  hospitality  with 
great  cordiality  and  unfailing  iteration.  It  strikes  me  that,  at 
present,  the  German  element  is  in  the  lead;  but  how  long  will  it 
remain  so  at  a  court  where  the  Foreign  Ministers  are  so  transient 
that  almost  half  of  them  have  been  changed  since  I  arrived  in 
Constantinople  ? 

There  is  a  literary  conclave  here  with  an  intellectual  atmos- 
phere, where  poetry  is  recited  and  rare  themes  are  discussed. 
This  is  outside  of  the  routine  of  society.  But  the  principal  con- 
versation among  the  various  embassies  and  their  attaches,  con- 
cerns riding  parties,  lawn-tennis,  dances,  dogs,  horses  and  flirta- 
tions. If  you  should  undertake,  while  upon  the  cricket-ground 
or  in  the  ballroom,  to  discuss  any  subject  connected  with  art, 
science  or  literature,  I  doubt  not  you  would  be  considered  by  the 


THE  PLAGUES  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  49 

bulk  of  the  young  English,  French,  German,  Austrian,  Russian, 
Italian  or  Greek  attaches,  as  de  trop,  or,  in  other  words,  a  bore.  It 
seems  that  neither  by  position,  money  nor  intelligence  do  em- 
bassies at  Constantinople  deserve  the  places  which  they  assume  as^ 
the  leaders  of  society.  When  it  comes  to  carrying  straws  from  place 
to  place  they  are  active  and  vigilant;  but  when  it  comes  to  solid,- 
substantial  ideas  for  the  advancement  and  culture  of  those 
who  make  Constantinople  their  home,  they  are  not  as  im- 
portant a  factor  as  are  the  various  religious  societies,  which 
really  form  by  themselves  a  social  order  of  a  self-sacrificing 
and  noble  quality.  And  among  these  I  would  include  the 
American  missionaries,  both  male  and  female,  as  well  as  the 
Scotch,  English,  Dutch  and  German  good  folk  who  make 
the  Protestant  churches  and  schools  both  attractive  and  in- 
structive. 

As  early  as  a.  d.  1837,  when  Miss  Pardoe  wrote  her  "  City 
of  the  Sultan,"  she  remarked  that  there  were  three  plagues 
of  Constantmople — fire,  pestilence  and  dragomans.  The  drago- 
mans still  remain,  but  I  find  them  a  most  reputable  and  indis- 
pensable class  of  public  servants.  The  pestilence,  notwithstand- 
ing the  horrible  condition  of  the  streets,  has  not,  of  late  years, 
aroused  anxiety.  This  may  be  owing  to  the  good  quarantine 
established — under  Fatalistic  doctrine  !  But  the  other  plague — 
fire — is  not  quenched.  It  is  a  perpetual  scourge,  for  reasons 
which  are  apparent  in  the  wooden  buildings  of  the  city,  and  in 
the  careless  mode  in  which  the  all-consuming  pipe  is  used. 
Besides  this  incendiary  there  is  another.  It  is  a  sort  of  frame- 
work over  the  hot  coals  in  the  brazier  which  is  used  for 
warming  the  apartments.  It  is  called  the  pandour.  It  is  not 
the  "whiskered  pandour"  of  poetry,  but  it  is  equally  de- 
structive. The  family  washing  is  hung  upon  it  to  dry.  Of 
course,  after  the  clothes  are  dry  a  fire  is  likely  to  ensue.  But  the 
fourth  plague,  which  Miss  Pardoe  was  inclined  to  think  was 
worse  than  all  the  other  three,  she  designated  as  "politics." 
She  says  :  *'  The  Faubourg  of  Pera  always  reminds  me  of 
an  ant-hill,  with  its  diplomatic  bustle  and  race  for  straws 
and  trifles,  and  its  ceaseless,  resistless  struggle  and  its  striving 
to  secure  most  inconsequent  results."  What  she  observed 
forty  years  ago  continues,  not  so  much  among  the  diplomats 
as  among  the  various  civilians,  who  are   jealous  of   each  other^ 


50 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


and    among    the  Greek,    Armenian    and    other   races,  who  are 
contentious  among  themselves. 

One  thing  can  be  said  in  favor  of  the  social  life  of  the  Turk. 
He  seldom  dines  alone.  He  is  even  more  hospitable  than  the 
Arab  with  his  salt.  If  he  is  in  his  konak^  or  country  house, 
every  visitor  is  an  invited  guest  to  his  table.  Let  me  make  a 
picture  of  a  real  Turkish  dinner: 

The  Pasha  sits  down,  cross-legged,  on  a  divan,  and  his 
eunuch,  or  aga,  brings  him  a  chased  silver  basin  and  ewer.  After 
the  Oriental  method,  water  is  poured  upon  the  hands.  Another 
servant  brings  in  a  gold-embroidered  napkin  ;  then  drawing  up 
a  low  table,  which  is  becoming  common  now  in  our  Western 
households  as  an  article  of  bric-a-brac,  being  inlaid  with  mother- 
of-pearl,  an  attendant  places  upon  this  the  waiter  loaded  with 
the  repast.  There  are  many  dishes,  to  suit  a  variety  of 
tastes.  A  favorite  dish  is  a  lamb  roasted  whole.  It  is 
stuffed  with  rice,  raisins,  and  the  favorite  pistachio  nut.  This  nut 
is  sold  upon  the  streets  of  Constantinople  as  commonly  as  the 
peanut  in  New  York.  It  is  the  pearl  of  good  things.  Then 
comes  a  delicate  dish  of  small  fish,  and  there  is  no  place  equal 
to  the  Bosporus  for  this  article.  Egg  plant,  if  it  be  in  season, 
appears  fried  in  oil,  and  followed  by  boiled  squashes  stuffed 
with  hash.  The  Turkish  hash  is  by  no  means  to  be  derided,  for 
it  is  neither  second-hand  nor  equivocal.  The  national  dish  is 
called  dolma.  Hash  is  an  element  of  that  dish.  Hash  and 
mutton  is  the  piece  de  resistance.  Rice  is  served  with  it,  as  well 
as  with  rabbit,  and  both  are  cooked  in  vine  leaves.  Then  we  have 
chicken  breasts  stewed  in  rose  water,  and  cakes  of  flour  and  sugar, 
or  dough  sweetened  and  cooked.  Then  come  the  jellies,  the 
sherbet,  the  exquisite  rose  preserves  and  various  "dulcet  syrups, 
tinct  with  the  cinnamon."  Nothing  equals  the  rose  preserves  in 
the  eye  of  the  Oriental  housewife;  and  here,  by  way  of  paren- 
thesis, it  is  just  to  say  that  the  housewifery  of  the  Turkish 
matron  cannot  be  overrated.  She  has  much  to  do,  and  does  it 
well.  There  are  a  number  of  side  dishes  in  small  saucers 
— most  of  them  delicate  and  unfamiliar  to  us.  To  crown  the 
repast  comes  the  pilaf.  This  is  a  dish  of  rice,  seasoned  with 
butter  and  tomato  juice,  in  accordance  with  an  invariable  cus- 
tom at  every  meal. 

Is  not  this  nienu  a  sign  of  advanced  civilization  ?    Is  not  this  a 


CABLAKIAI,   OR   FOOD-CARRIER. 
5« 


52  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


CUtSINIER,   OR  COOK. 


TURKISH  MEALS.  r^^ 

feast  fit  for  LucuUus  ?  One  of  these  Eastern  dishes  has  as  much 
patriotic  flavor  as  the  roast  beef  of  Old  England,  the  frogs  of 
France,  the  olla  of  Spain,  or  the  hog  and  hominy  of  America.  It  is 
the  plenteous  pilaf,  the  national  dish.  It  is  worthy  of  all  accepta- 
tion. It  is  sometimes  spelled  pillaii^  but  generally  pronounced 
p'laf.  It  is  on  every  Turkish  table.  It  may  be  made  in  various 
ways,  but  its  very  soul  consists  in  the  essences  and  sauces  which 
belong  to  the  stewed  meats,  over  which  plain  boiled  rice  is 
poured.  The  rice  is  as  white  as  the  unbolted  snow  of  Boreas.  To 
a  Turkish  or  Arab  peasant  or  soldier  a  dish  of  pilaf  is  a  feast 
of  the  gods,  and  as  prepared  here  in  the  East  it  would  adorn 
a  Delmonico  dinner. 

I  am  not  aware  that  the  Roman  gourmand  ever  ate  with  his 
fingers,  nor  have  I  ever  seen  any  classic  announcement  of  the 
number  of  tines  to  his  fork  ;  but  it  will  be  many  decades  before 
the  Turk  gives  up  the  habit  of  eating  with  his  fingers,  or  regard- 
ing the  knife,  fork  and  spoon  as  othenvise  than  unhandy  table- 
ware— wasteful  and  ridiculous. 

Are  there  any  liquids  on  the  table  ?  No.  No  bottles,  no 
pitchers  ?  No  ;  only  a  large  glass  of  water  for  each  guest  at  the 
end  of  the  entertainment. 

The  meals  for  the  palace,  and  frequently  for  the  konaks,  are 
brought  from  a  distance.  You  will  notice  their  carrier  in  the  pict- 
ure. He  is  called  the  '■'■CabldBai."  The  other  personage  is  the 
cook.  These  are  orginal  sketches — not  commonplace  photographs. 

The  trays  are  carried  from  Dolma-Bagtche  to  Yildiz,  nearly  a 
third  of  a  mile  distant — and  up-hill.  The  meats  are  contained 
in  copper  dishes,  so  that  they  can  be  heated  on  a  charcoal  fire 
after  their  arrival  at  Yildiz,  There  is,  however,  a  kitchen  for 
the  Imperial  family  connected  with  the  palace  of  Yildiz.  Their 
dinners  do  not  travel  that  distance,  but  the  tray  is  in  service  at 
all  the  dinners. 

An  American  friend  asked  me,  on  my  describing  these  twenty- 
odd  dishes,  whether  the  Turk  "  waded  "  through  all  this  variety 
with  his  fingers.  If  the  Turk  had  asked  the  question  of  a  New 
Yorker  whether  he  "waded  "  through  all  the  dishes  of  the  Hoff- 
man House  menu  with  a  lot  of  cutlery,  the  answer  in  each  case 
would  have  been  an  equation — "  why,  certainly  !" 

A  story  is  told  of  the  Shah  of  Persia,  during  his  visit  to  Eu- 
rope, which  was  exceedingly  amusing  to  some  Turks  to  whom  it 


54  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

was  mentioned.  It  was,  that  after  dinner,  forgetting  temporarily- 
Western  customs — having  used  his  fingers  in  dining — he  wiped  his 
hands  on  the  lace  curtain,  which  was  conveniently  near  him.  This 
was  after  dining  with  the  Emperor  of  Austria.  He  thought  the 
curtains  were  hung  up  for  his  special  service. 

These  remarks  are  prefatory  to  a  description  of  the  best 
possible  dinner — at  the  palace  itself.  But  it  could  hardly  be 
termed  a  Turkish  meal.  It  happened  in  the  spring  of  1886,  after 
our  return  from  Egypt.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  how  much  of 
the  preliminary  preparation  seemed  to  us  dispensable.  The 
calling  of  the  landeau,  and  the  liveried  coachman  with  his  simple- 
gold  band,  and  the  capture  of  the  dragoman  en  route  to  the 
palace,  were  not  the  least  indispensable  requisites  for  such  an 
occasion. 

We  had  been  informed  that  the  German  Ambassador  and  his 
'wife  were  to  be  our  companions  at  the  feast,  and  that  the  famous 
violinist  Wilhelmj  was  to  be  present.  He  was  to  have  the  honor 
of  playing  for  the  Sultan,  and  as  a  German,  he  was  under  the 
patronage  of  the  German  Ambassador. 

It  is  the  custom  of  the  Sultan — and  for  some  reasons  which 
are  more  or  less  connected,  as  it  is  humorously  said,  with  astrology 
— always  to  postpone  an  engagement,  especially  when  it  involves 
an  interview,  or  a  dinner  with  the  representative  of  a  foreign 
power.  The  dinner  at  Yildiz,  to  which  reference  has  been  made, 
was  twice  postponed.  The  same  thing  happened  to  Herr  Rado- 
witz,  the  German  Minister  ;  but  at  last,  the  invitation  was  fixed 
"  for  Saturday  evening,  the  29th  of  May.  Luckily,  owing  to  my 
perusal  of  history  on  that  day,  I  found  this  date  to  be  the 
anniversary  of  the  entrance  of  the  Ottoman  emperor  into 
Constantinople.  According  to  Chesterfield's  canon  of  diplomatic 
grace,  I  incidentally  mentioned  to  the  Sultan  this  pleasing  fortui- 
tousness. I  think  he  had  forgotten  it,  for  he  seemed  to  regard 
me  with  a  smile  of  amazement  that  an  alien  should  be  so  ready 
in  Ottoman  annals. 

Many  distinguished  gentlemen  and  officials  were  invited  to  meet 
us.  The  details  of  the  dinner  were  published  the  next  day  in  the 
papers,  in  many  languages.  All  that  it  becomes  me  to  say  is 
that  it  was  throughout,  especially  in  its  conclusion,  a  remarkable 
proof  of  the  friendship  of  the  Porte  for  the  German  and  American 
nations. 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  PRESENCE. 


55 


When  we  arrive  at  the  gate  of  Yildiz,  the  Kavass  dismounts. 
He  is  no  longer  wanted,  and  he  retires  to  the  Legation.  The 
soldiers  on  guard  escort  us  up  the  drive,  and  the  coachman, 
conscious  of  the  presence  of  royalty,  lashes  his  horses  into  a 
gallop. 

"  Are  we   late  ? "  I  ask,  tremulously. 

"About  five  minutes,"  responds  the  dragoman.  We  breathe 
freely. 

In  the  gloaming  of  the  evening  I  only  notice  that  the 
garden  wall  is  a  mass  of  Bankshire  roses  and  the  palace  a 
wilderness  of  lights.  The  carriage  stops.  We  alight.  We  are 
met  at  the  vestibule  by  a  grand  Pasha  in  uniform  and 
decorations.  We  walk  upon  carpets,  ascend  and  descend  steps 
mto  the  marble  entrance,  and  there  are  invited  to  take  off 
our  wraps.  We  are  ushered  mto  a  small  side  room,  and 
find  M.  and  Mme.  Radowitz,  together  with  other  invited 
guests,  among  them  Dr.  Mavroyeni,  the  Sultan's  physican, 
whose  son  is  now  the  Turkish  Minister  to  America.  The 
German  Ambassadress  is  dressed  in  elegant  white  satin,  with  a 
gold  and  silk  embroidered  train.  It  is  unnecessary  to  state  how 
the  American  Minister's  wife  is  dressed.  In  some  nebulous 
way,  I  know  that  pink  satin  and  point  lace  figured  on  the 
occasion.  The  gentlemen  greet  us,  and  remain  standing.  In 
a  few  minutes  the  master  of  ceremonies  leads  the  way  to  the 
upper  salon.  He  is  follov/ed  by  the  Ministers  and  the  rest  of 
the  company.  Each  is  presented  in  turn  to  the  Sultan.  Mme. 
Radowitz,  with  a  grace  beyond  all  expression,  sinks  to  the  floor 
in  her  salaam.  The  American  Minister's  wife,  from  her  Demo- 
cratic manner  of  courtesy,  is  not  expected  to  make  quite  such 
a  display  ;  and  she  does  not.  We  are  in  the  presence  of  the 
Sultan.  If  I  were  to  give  the  opinion  of  the  female  portion 
of  the  company,  I  should  say  that  he  has  large  fine  eyes  and 
a  most  gracious  manner.  The  latter  is  illustrated  by  his  cordial 
shaking  of  the  hand  with  all.  On  his  motioning  to  the  ladies 
they  are  seated  on  the  divan.  He  then  calls  up  the  three 
princes ;  his  son,  who  is  seventeen  years  old,  and  his  two 
nephews.  These  youths  wear  military  suits,  epaulettes,  spurs 
and  swords.  They  are  each  presented  in  their  turn.  How  the 
company  is  disposed,  with  the  view  to  a  movement  towards  the 
dinmg  saloon  and  table,  it  is  unnecessary  to  state;  except  this, 


56  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

that  the  Sultan  accompanies  his  guests  to  the  door  of  the  grand 
salon,  with  a  parting  salutation  and  remark  that  he  will  con- 
tinue the  reception  after  dinner. 

The  table  is  a  picture.  It  is  wide  and  long,  with  a  gorgeous 
display  of  flowers  fruits,  lights  and  crystal  shades.  We  enter  at 
the  end  of  the  room  and  are  tendered  our  respective  seats.  Our 
little  ministerial  family  are  placed  among  the  Princes.  One  of 
the  nephews,  Tewfik,  is  about  ten  years  of  age.  He  is  a  meek, 
quiet,  subdued-looking  child.  He  speaks  Turkish  only.  The 
Sultan's  son  and  nephew  speak  some  French.  When  the  dinner 
begins,  although  they  do  not  drink  wine,  there  is  much  geniality. 
We  happen  to  have  other  genial  companions  at  the  table.  They 
are  acquainted  with  some  of  our  Turkish- Egyptian  friends.  Some 
of  them  served  in  the  wars  together.  Meanwhile  the  Sultan's 
band  plays  rare  music  from  the  adjoining  room,  and  the  dinner 
goes  on  very  much  like  a  French  or  Russian  dinner.  I  find  that 
the  Princes  are  anxious  about  geography.  They  inquire  about 
Egypt.  They  ask  about  America.  We  explain  much  of  the 
recondite  history  of  Egypt,  including  incidental  remarks  about  the 
mummies,  temples  and  tombs.  Although  they  only  drink  water, 
we  drink  their  health,  and  they  enjoy  it.  Asking  after  their 
amusements,  we  do  not  receive  much  information.  I  imagine  that 
the  Princes  are  more  or  less  restricted  by  their  exalted  position. 
The  Tnenu  is  tempting.  The  wnes  are  good.  The  service,  in  silver 
at  first,  and  then  in  gold,  winds  up  with  the  finest  crystal  for 
finger-bowls.  Dainty  little  gold  shells  hold  the  ices.  Ten  serv- 
ants in  gold-tiimmed  uniforms  and  fez  caps  serve  the  table. 

The  dinner  is  not  tedious,  for  it  is  not  long.  The  bon-bons 
are  passed  about,  the  princes  being  always  first  served.  Each 
takes  one,  and  passes  it  to  my  wife  with  a  quaint  courtesy. 
After  arising  from  the  table,  we  march  down  the  line  of  Pashas, 
aides  and  servants,  all  of  whom  bow,  after  the  Oriental  method. 
Then  passing  through  a  corridor,  we  enter  a  polished  green  and 
black  tiled  coffee-room,  which  has  a  dais  railed  off  at  one  end. 
How  rare  and  beautiful  are  the  Turkish  carpets  and  divans  here  ! 
How  tempting  for  a  siesta,  after  dinner !  How  exquisite  the 
chairs  and  the  malachite  tables  ! 

After  being  seated,  the  dragoman  surprises  my  wife  and  the 
company.     He  approaches  her  with  a  box. 

"  I  have  something  to  show  you,  Madam,"  he  says. 


A  DECORATION  AND  A  SURPRISE.  57 

"  Yes,"  she  responds.     "  It  is  lovely  outside.     What  is  in  it  ?" 

He  opens  it,  remarking,   **  Shall  I  put  it  on  you  ?" 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?"  she  inquires. 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  of  decorating  you,  at  the  Sultan's  wish, 
with  the  Grand  Order  of  the  Chefekat." 

Thereupon  he  throws  the  Cordon  over  her  head,  and,  with  the 
aid  of  the  German  Ambassadress,  who  is  familiar  with  the  decor- 
ation, it  is  decorously  arranged.  It  is  a  surprise  as  well  as  an 
honor,  coming  as  it  does  almost  within  one  year  of  our  service 
with  the  American  Legation.  It  is  a  star  in  brown,  gold  and 
green  enamel,  with  diamond  brilliants.  It  has  five  points,  and 
twenty-six  diamonds  on  each  point.  Surely  no  woman  of  good 
training  would  refuse  such  a  gift !  It  is  fastened  upon  the 
front  of  the  corsage,  and,  with  the  Cordon,  it  serves  as  an  orna- 
ment to  the  dress.  The  Pashas,  the  aides  and  the  officers 
make  their  felicitations  on   the  happy  event. 

My  wife  told  me  confidentially  afterwards  that  she  thought 
for  a  brief,  ineffable  moment  that  she  was  a  bride  again. 

This  decoration  is  a  jeweled  ornament  which  is  generally  be- 
stowed upon  the  wives  of  such  Ministers  here  as  are  persona 
gratx.  It  originated  with-  the  present  Sultan,  or  his  father,  in 
order  to  honor  Lady  Layard  for  her  services  in  the  hospitals 
during  the  Crimean  War.  It  is  called  the  "  Order  of  Good  Works." 
The  presentation  was  made  with  much  exquisite  tact.  My  wife 
received  it  amid  general  congratulations  before  she  was  aware 
that  a  question  might  be  raised  as  to  the  propriety  of  its  recep- 
tion by  the  other  member  of  her  family.  However,  I  raised  no 
such  question.  The  Constitution  in  no  way  inhibits  a  man's  wife 
from  receiving  presents  ;  and  if  it  did  there  is  no  special  penalty 
in  connection  with  a  gift  of  this  nature.  The  ostensible  reason 
for  this  presentation,  as  its  name  signifies — being  charitable  bene- 
faction— could  not  well  be  contested  by  the  Minister  after  the 
fact  was  accomplished  by  the  consent  of  the  wife,  "without  any 
coercion  on  the  part  of  her  said  husband." 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  matter,  these  courtesies  do  not 
loosen  the  friendship  of  the  two  nations.  They  have  no  tendency 
toward  demoralization.  That  I  can  understand  ;  for  they  do 
not  lead  me  to  be  partial  to  aristocratic  institutions  or  monarch- 
ical governments. 

There  has  been  much  interchange  of  kindly  regard  between 


58  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  JN  TURKEY. 

the  Sultan  and  Shah.  The  Sultan  frequently  wears  the  Grand 
Cordon  of  the  Persian  Order  of  the  Lion  and  Sun,  and  he  is 
prompt  to  confer  decorations  on  those  who  represent  his  co- 
religionists. These  occasions  make  very  pronounced  the  relig- 
ious relations  btween  the  two  countries  ;  not  merely  by  cordons 
of  honor,  for  the  Sultan  is  more  practical.  He  has  invited  many 
of  the  Persian  youth  to  avail  themselves  of  the  advantages  of 
his  schools,  within  the  domain  of  Turkey.  This  accords  with  the 
benevolence  which  is  authorized  and  enjoined  by  the  Koran. 

Whenever  there  are  sufferers  from  fire  and  earthquake  upon 
the  islands  and  lands  which  belong  to  the  Turkish  empire,  there 
is  always  a  relief  commission,  of  which  the  Sultan  is  the  chief 
patron.  When  he  tenders  relief  to  refugees  from  Turkey  in 
Europe,  going  to  new  homes  in  Asia,  there  is  much  contention 
and  anxiety  on  the  part  of  his  Ministers  and  friends  to  show  an 
interest  in  the  charity.  A  house  is  burned  down  at  Bechiktash, 
and  a  child  in  consequence  loses  its  life  and  its  mother  her  rea- 
son. It  happens  near  the  palace  of  Yildiz.  The  Sultan  hears  of 
it.  He  exempts  the  owner  of  the  house,  by  force  of  his  auto- 
cratic power,  from  any  government  tax,  and  presents  him  with  a 
sum  of  money  as  a  token  of  sympathy  for  his  misfortunes. 

Presents  of  value  are  by  no  means  uncommon  in  the 
East.  They  play  a  great  part  in  diplomatic  and  social  life. 
They  are  not  limited  to  those  of  the  same  faith.  They  are 
often  given  by  the  Sultan  to  the  Greek  and  Armenian  patriarchs 
and  the  Hebrew  chief  rabbi ;  and  often  the  present  is  in  money. 

These  gifts  are  seldom  bestowed  to  dignify  those  with  whom 
the  Sultan  comes  in  contact  beyond  their  meed,  but  they 
always  produce  the  proper  fruit  and  give  encouragement  to  those 
kindly  relations  out  of  which  the  charities  and  tolerations  of  this 
Eastern  life  spring.  Why  should  this  not  be  ?  If  His  Holiness 
the  Pope  can  confer  the  insignia  of  the  Order  of  Pius  IX.,  on 
the  Grand  Vizier,  and  upon  other  Turkish  officials,  why  may  not 
there  be  a  reciprocity  in  that  regard  ?  So  the  Sultan  sends  to  the 
Pope,  through  the  Catholic  Armenian  Patriarch,  a  rich  ring,  to 
bind  in  harmony  their  respective  religious  efforts. 

Benevolence  in  the  East  is  by  no  means  limited.  It  is  catch- 
ing. It  extends  to  the  Legations.  If  the  Sultan  may  give  gratui- 
ties to  the  Grand  Rabbi,  or  to  the  Patriarch  of  the  Greek  Church, 
or  a  ring  to  the  Pope,  and  exercise  other  elegant  amenities,  why 


ORIENTAL  GIFTS. 


59 


should  not  there  be  a  calico-dance  in  mid-Lent,  under  English 
auspices  for  sweet  charity's  sake  ?  Why  should  not  the  German 
Ambassadress,  to  help  the  kindergarten,  institute  a  bazaar  for 
that  purpose  .•" 

Among  the  presents  fabricated  for  Pope  Pius  IX.,  was  one 
from  the  Sultan  Abdul-Medjid  in  the  year  1853.  It  is  an  Oriental 
saddle.  Its  cloth  and  leather,  except,  of  course,  the  seat,  were 
encrusted  with  jewels,  mostly  diamonds.  It  may  not  be  known, 
but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  among  the  Turks  there  is  no 
present  which  is  so  appreciated  as  that  of  a  horse  or  saddle.  Al- 
though the  Popes  are  not  in  the  habit  of  riding  on  horseback,  at 
least  since  the  time  when  one  of  them  was  thrown  from  his  horse  in 
the  Forum,  the  saddle  was  a  very  beautiful  specimen  of  agift,  and 
well  intended  by  the  father  of  the  present  Sultan.  The  precious 
stones  in  the  saddle,  however,  have  been  removed  since  it  was 
first  hung  upon  a  peg  in  the  Vatican.  They  now  decorate 
a  chalice  presented  by  the  ex-Queen  of  Spain  to  the  Pope, 

Considering  the  unusual  circumstances  of  the  evening,  this 
digression  may  be  pardonable. 

After  the  presentation  of  the  decoration  to  my  wife,  on  this 
occasion,  and  after  other  courtesies,  the  ladies  enter  the  carriage. 
They  are  driven  toward  but  not  to  the  harem.  They  are  not 
invited  to  see  the  domesticities.  The  gentlemen  follow  upon  foot. 
The  beautiful  lights  in  the  gardens  and  from  the  windows  make 
the  scene  like  one  from  the  Arabian  Nights.  The  plashing  fountains 
and  the  fragrance  of  the  air  produce  the  impression  of  something 
magical  and  marvelous. 

Then  we  enter  a  grand  salon,  with  a  parqueted  floor 
covered  with  rugs,  divans,  chairs  and  tables,  where  a  rare 
library,  a  white  porcelain  stove  and  numerous  secretaries  fill 
the  side  walls,  from  which  depend  red  satin  hangings.  Here 
the  Sultan  receives  us  again.  A  beautiful  table  occupies 
the  centre.  Upon  it  are  some  American  photographs.  It  hap- 
pened on  that  very  morning  that  another  box  of  American  photo- 
graphs was  received  through  the  Porte,  and  not  through  myself  as 
Minister.  His  Majesty  sits  in  an  arm-chair  at  the  head  of  this 
table,  dressed,  as  usual,  in  his  dark-blue  frock  coat,  suit,  sword 
and  fez  cap.  His  blqck  whiskers  and  large  eyes  produce  a  pictur- 
esque effect.  He  seems  more  at  ease  than  any  of  his  company.  He 
chats  with  each  and  all,  and  always  on  appropriate  subjects,  ancl 


6o  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

with  musical,  subdued  tones  and  fluent  language.  Every  sen- 
tence is  received  by  the  interpreter  with  a  profound  bow,  carrying 
his  right  hand  from  near  the  floor  to  his  heart  and  head.  The 
sentences  are  passed  through  our  own  dragoman  to  the  minis- 
terial ear  with  equal  grace.  To  the  German  Ambassadress  the 
Sultan  apologizes  for  not  seeing  and  entertaining  her  before  at  his 
dmner-table.  It  is  because  of  the  Greek  troubles.  He  points  to 
the  photographs  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Germany  on  a 
side  table.  He  cherishes  them  as  friends.  To  the  American 
Minister  he  expresses  regret  at  the  delay  in  seeing  him,  and  the 
delight  which  he  experiences  at  receiving  some  new  pictures  from 
the  President. 

These  courtesies  ending,  the  violinist  Wilhelmj  is  ushered  in. 
He  has  a  large  forehead,  and  the  air  of  a  man  of  genius.  He 
makes  a  graceful  bow  at  the  door,  and  seems  relieved  when  he 
reaches  the  piano  stool,  where  an  accomplished  Pasha  awaits  and 
afterwards  accompanies  him  in  some  rare  and  rich  music.  The 
national  air  of  Germany  is  given,  on  the  rendering  of  which  the 
Sultan  and  all  of  us  rise.  Then,  as  a  tribute  to  Germany,  or  to  the 
unseen  goddess  of  Metaphysics,  he  asks  each  of  us  to  smoke.  The 
ladies,  of  course,  decline,  but  the  American  Minister  is  not  in 
that  mood.  The  Sultan  lights  his  own  cigarette  from  a  silver 
match-box,  and  pointing  to  it  says : 

''  Tell  my  friend  Mr.  Hewitt  that  I  keep  his  gift  by  me,  as  a 
pleasant  souvenir." 

When  we  retire  to  the  library,  the  Sultan  shows  his  guests 
the  elegant  specimens  of  American  art  and  scenery  which  he 
had  received  in  the  morning.  He  had  selected  a  few  from  the 
new  lot.  He  also  shows  me  a  letter  in  Turkish  from  his 
Minister,  which  informs  him  of  the  arrival  of  the  package.  He 
states  that  he  has  directed  the  Minister  to  telegraph  the  President 
his  grateful  regard  and  thanks  for  these  interesting  gifts.  He 
also  requests  me  to  send  a  similar  message. 

The  tea  is  then  served  in  gold  cups  and  saucers.  The  music 
is  concluded.  Thanks  are  sent  to  the  musician,  along  with 
a  pretty  decoration.  Then  the  Sultan  rises,  takes  little  Tewfik, 
his  nephew,  by  the  hand  and  leads  him  to  the  piano,  saying, 
apologetically : 

"The  boy  will  give  us  some  music,  although  he  has  only 
learned  by  the  ear." 


ENTERTAINMENT  ENDED.  6 1 

The  quiet  little  Prince  plays  a  spirited  march.  It  is  a  national 
air.  Then  he  plays  from  "  Norma."  After  that  he  leaves  the  piano 
and  stands  in  his  place  meekly,  till  the  Sultan  indicates  for  him  to 
sit.  The  Sultan  kindly  explains  that  he  is  a  child  of  one  of  his 
brothers,  who  had  died  when  Tewfik  was  but  a  few  months  old,  and 
that  he  was  educating  him  as  well  as  his  other  nephew  as  com- 
panions to  his  son. 

The  Sultan  now  arises.  He  will  detain  us  no  longer.  It 
is  etiquette  at  the  palace  to  remain  until  the  Sultan  gives 
the  signal  to  leave.  This  he  generally  does  by  a  glance  at  his 
watch,  saying  : 

"  I  fear  you  will  be  late  ;"  or,  "  Perhaps  I  am  detaining  you." 

He  shakes  hands  with  the  ladies  first;  and  then  the  gentlemen, 
with  their  best  grace,  back  out.  The  bouquets  are  distributed  to 
the  ladies.  A  little  remark  of  mine,  which  was  caught  as  I  left 
the  room,  caused  the  Sultan  to  recall  the  Minister  and  the  drago- 
man. I  had  mentioned  that  our  President  was  about  to  be  married. 
He  suggests  to  the  dragoman  to  ask  the  Minister  whether  the 
Ottoman  ruler  could  not  in  some  way  honor  the  expected  bride 
of  the  President.  Of  this,  perhaps,  hereafter,  with  proper  reserve, 
as  it  became  a  diplomatic  Diversion. 

As  we  retire,  after  many  kindly  greetings,  we  look  in  vain 
for  lattice  and  curtain  to  indicate  the  harem.  Every  window 
opens  into  a  beautiful  garden,  and  every  garden  is  filled  with 
fiowers  and  sparkling  fountains.  It  is  a  fairy  scene  ;  but  no 
houri.  We  enter  our  carriages  at  the  park  gate,  take  our  venera- 
ble Kavass  along,  and,  with  a  cavalry  escort  behind,  we  move 
toward  Pera;  and  thus  this  Oriental  entertainment  is  ended  ! 

The  tales  which  have  been  told  concerning  the  life  of  Abdul 
Medjid,  and  his  brother,  Abdul  Aziz,  and  of  their  enormous,  capri- 
cious personal  expenditures  and  luxuries,  should  be  taken  as  we 
take  the  Oriental  tale  about  the  jewels  and  precious  minerals  of 
the  earth  seen  in  some  cave  opened  by  some  magic  influence.  In 
the  matter  of  display,  ornamentation,  luxury,  retinue  of  officers — 
military,  civil  and  ecclesiastical — there  is  much  demonstrative 
Orientalism  even  yet,  for  the  gratification  of  the  people  and 
sojourners  upon  the  Bosporus  ;  but  in  this  regard  there  has  been 
great  advancement  on  the  line  of  simplicity.  This  palatial  din- 
ner illustrates  this  line  of  advancement. 

The  palaces  have  their  alabaster  bathrooms,  and   gates   of 


62  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

green  and  gold  of  marvelous  beauty — places  for  dreams — pleasure- 
houses  for  rare  festivities  like  those  of  Kubla-Khan  or  Yildiz, 
but  they  also  have  their  offices  for  the  labors  of  statesmanship. 
They  may  have  treasure  halls,  where  rubies,  sapphires,  em- 
eralds, diamonds  and  pearls  of  rare  loveliness  and  immense 
size  are  so  numerous  and  wonderful  as  to  stud  the  very  walls  of 
embroidered  satin  and  the  very  rugs  beneath  your  feet  with  costly 
jewels;  but  after  all,  our  feast  at  the  "Palace  of  the  Star" 
signalizes  its  memory  more  by  the  amiability  of  the  Sultan  than 
by  the  decorations  which  we  observed  or  which  he  bestowed. 
All  the  jewels  of  his  palaces  and  treasury  could  not  make  the 
balm  of  its  recollection  more  fragrant  and  sweet. 

If  any  of  my  Democratic-Republican  constituents  should  be  so 
curious  about  this  representation  at  this  royal  palace  and  feast, 
I  ask  the  question  that  was  asked  about  John  the  Baptist,  "  What 
went  ye  out  for  to  see?"  I  could  not  truthfully  respond  that  I 
saw  a  man  shaken  like  a  reed  with  the  wind — as  the  Sultan  is 
often  represented — but  I  could  say  that  I  saw  "a  man  clothed 
in  soft  raiment,"  and  that  I  beheld  those  which  are  "gorgeously 
appareled  and  live  delicately  in  the  King's  courts." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DIVERSIONS   IN    AMERICA    OVER  DIPLOMACY    IN    TURKEY. 

The  name  by  which  I  have  christened  this  volume  indicates 
that  its  pages  are  not  entirely  serious.  The  volume  is  intended 
to  record  Diversions.  The  word  has  a  comprehensive  mean- 
ing. It  means  that  which  draws  the  mind  from  care  or  study,  and 
thus  relaxes  and  amuses.  It  is  not  only  an  entertainment,  but  a 
recreation.  I  will  not  say  that  I  was  limited  in  my  recreation  or 
amusement  to  that  which  was  immediately  around  me.  I  found 
much  delight  in  perusing  the  American  newspaper,  with  its 
numerous  and  comic  caricatures,  and  its  marvelous  but  humor- 
ous interA'iews  between  His  Majesty  and  the  American  Minister. 
I  have  made  a  collection  of  these  remarkable  drawings  ;  some  of 
which  make  "old  wrinkles  come"  with  mirth  and  laughter. 
Here  is  one  before  me  : 

The  Minister  is  sitting,  capped  with  a  red  and  tasselled 
fez,  in  baggy  breeches,  upon  a  scarlet  cushion.  He  holds 
an  improbable  pipe  of  impossible  size.  Its  amber  is  between 
his  lips,  while  an  odalisque  fairy  is  tendering  him  Oriental  sher- 
bet. Another  picture  represents  the  Minister  done  in  little,  sit- 
ting on  a  foot-stool  at  the  feet  of  a  gigantic  Sultan  with  a  tre- 
mendous turban  that  would  have  done  honor  to  the  Janizaries  in 
the  time  of  Selim  I.  The  Sultan  has  a  drawn  cimeter,  the  like 
of  which  cannot  be  found  in  the  treasury  within  the  Porte  or  in 
any  armory  ofi  earth.  A  chibouque  of  immensity  is  connected 
with  an  endless  snaky  convolution;  while  occasionally  the  Sultan 
ceases  to  smoke  in  order  to  roar  "  like  all  Tattersalls,"  at  some 
fancied  joke  of  the  Minister.  Another  represents  the  Minister, 
with  crushed  hat  and  spike-tail  coat,  bowing  before  the  Sultan, 
who  sits  cross-legged — which  is  not  his  position  on  any  except  such 
picturesque  occasions — while  out  from  behind  the  arras  peep  num- 
berless "  lights  of  the  harem  "  curious  to  observe  the  ceremony. 

Most  of  these  arrangements  of  diplomatic  jocoseness,  are  from 
the  pen  and  pencil  of  the  American  press.     They  are  strangely 

63 


64  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

anachronous  and  exaggerative.  The  American  humor  revels 
in  exaggeration  ;  and  why  may  not  the  absent  enjoy  it  as 
well  as  those  who  are  at  home  ! 

Even  the  most  sedate  papers  in  America  had  cable  despatches 
which  stated  that  the  Minister  was  presented  with  a  set  of  valu- 
able Turkish  jewelry  by  the  Sultan,  They  proceeded  to  read 
section  1751  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  which  forbids  any  diplo- 
matic or  consular  ofificer  asking  or  accepting  any  present  for 
himself  or  any  other  person.  Many  compliments  were  heaped 
upon  the  Minister  because  he  had  been  made  the  recipient  of 
Turkish  jewelry  ;  and  one  of  our  papers  playfully  remarked  that 
the  only  gift  the  Minister  could  make  in  return  would  be  some 
jokes  of  questionable  age  and  of  impossible  comprehension,  but 
which  might  form  a  brilliant  parure  for  the  Moslem  festive 
board. 

This  story  of  the  jewels  started  from  a  pleasant  incident. 
It  happened  during  my  first  interview  with  His  Majesty.  The 
present  Mayor  of  New  York,  Mr.  Hewitt,  and  the  Sultan  are 
great  friends,  having  met  each  other  in  Constantinople  some 
years  ago.  Their  friendship  had  been  cemented  by  a  library  of 
books  of  rare  interest  sent  by  the  Sultan  to  the  Mayor.  Mr. 
Hewitt  entrusted  the  Minister  with  a  return  gift.  It  was  very 
handsome  ;  the  very  best  sample  of  Tiffany's  workmanship.  It 
was  a  covered  vase  of  graceful  shape,  intended  as  a  receptacle 
for  keeping  sweet  the  Sultan's  smoking  tobacco,  albeit  of  Amer- 
ican growth,  which  Mr.  Hewitt  furnishes  the  Sultan  from  time 
to  time.  The  vase  was  of  beaten  metal  of  various  shades,  in 
which  silver  was  blended  with  gold  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
produce  a  most  harmonious  effect  in  colors.  The  chasing  was  in 
Arabesque  design,  with  two  shields  appearing  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  vase,  one  bearing  an  imperial  monogram* and  the  other 
the  emblems  of  Turkish  sovereignty.  Along  with  the  vase  was  a 
match-box,  in  the  shape  of  a  cigar.  This  opened  very  mysteri- 
ously. These  articles  had  been  transmitted  to  the  Sultan  the 
day  before  the  Reception  ;  and  at  the  private  interview  granted, 
much  was  said  about  the  friendship  which  existed  as  well  between 
the  United  States  and  Turkey,  as  between  Abdul  Hamid  and 
Abram  S.  Hewitt.  The  cable,  from  some  mangling  of  this 
incident,  gave  rise  to  these  fables  about  a  present  to  the 
Minister.     Indeed,  a  poet  from  Ohio  went  so  far  as  to  attribute 


66  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

to  the   Sultan   this   lyric   gush   as   to   Turkish  generosity   and 
impecuniosity  : 

"  Please  accept  this  jeweled  casket. 

For  I,  Abdul  Hamid  ask  it. 

The  bill  is  unpaid,  I  know,  sir. 

But  the  head  of  him  I  owe,  sir, 

Is  now  rolling  in  the  basket ! 

Other  papers  not  given  to  the  jocose  had  exquisite  etchings 
of  the  Minister,  in  a  swallow-tailed  coat,  making  his  obeisance 
before  the  Sultan.  It  described  the  ministerial  hair  as  oily,  like 
that  of  a  Chatham  Street  barber,  while  a  small  rose  nestled  in  the 
button-hole  of  his  coat,  to  which  an  odalisque  nightingale  sang  its 
song.  A  half-dozen  richly  dressed  eunuchs  salaamed  before  the 
enamored  Envoy.  It  was  said  that  the  Sultan  had  gotten  himself 
up  to  receive  the  Envoy  regardless  of  expense  ;  and  that  he 
had  even  gone  so  far  as  to  have  his  shoes  polished — a  most 
unusual  honor  to  be  paid  a  foreigner.  Although  the  two  emi- 
nent personages  could  not  understand  each  other — so  ran  the 
story — they  managed  to  carry  on  quite  a  conversation.  The 
Sultan  at  length  invites  the  Minister  to  visit  the  harera.  That 
gentleman  puts  on  his  killing  smile  and  acquiesces  ;  but  by  a 
strange  break  in  the  concatenation  of  the  wire  in  the  Black 
Sea,  the  Sultan  is  led  to  keep  a  watch  on  the  Bosporus,  owing 
to  a  remark  *about  Civil  Service  Reform,  a  senseless  subject  to 
discuss  under  such  sensuous  circumstances. 

The  picture  which  illustrates  this  wonderful  account  has 
several  odalisques  gazing  from  behind  an  embroidered  screen. 
As  they  are  the  special  lights  of  the  harem,  a  terrific-looking 
Nubian,  in  a  voluminous  turban,  with  a  drawn  cimeter,  and  a 
meteoric  crescent  above  his  forehead,  is  placed  on  guard,  expect- 
ing momentarily  the  order  of  the  Sultan  to  decapitate  the 
Minister. 

All  this  indicates  not  only  the  free  and  easy  way  in  which  the 
sovereigns  of  America  speak  of  a  brother  sovereign  in  another 
sphere,  but  it  also  shows  the  great  progress  which  has  been  made  in 
the  reception  of  Envoys  since  the  time  when  the  grandfather  of 
the  present  Sultan,  seated  behind  the  curtains  upon  his  throne  in 
the  Bagdad  kiosk  on  Seraglio  Point,  simply  opened  the  hangings 
for  the  purpose  of  passing  out  his  hand  to  be  kissed  by  the 
Ambassadors. 


THE  FUNNY  AMERICAN  JOURNALIST.  6  7 

But  it  is  when  the  American  journalist  is  in  his  funniest 
-mood  that  he  records  as  something  pleasant  the  somewhat  musty 
anecdote,  common  in  America,  which  plays  on  the  word 
Bosporus  (Bos-for-us!),  and  adds  to  its  playfulness  the  remark  that 
the  point  of  the  pun,  as  perpetrated  by  the  Minister,  did  not  pene- 
trate his  Majesty's  intellect  for  some  time,  but  that  when  it  did 
he  celebrated  the  event  by  sending  the  Minister  a  handsome  glass 
pipe,  formerly  used  by  the  females  of  the  harem. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  most  of  these  sportive  accounts 
•do  not  refrain  from  allusions  to  the  domesticities  of  the  palace. 

Is  it  not  one  of  the  liberties  of  the  American  people  that  its 
independent  citizen  may  take  a  lively  interest  in  the  discussion  of 
the  domestic  affairs  of  everybody  ?  Therefore,  it  was  not  at  all 
unexpected  to  find  in  American  journals  the  statement  that  the 
new  Mmister  was,  in  this  regard,  Extraordinary  in  many  senses 
besides  that  of  Envoy.  May  I  not  be  pardoned,  therefore,  in 
reproducing  for  Oriental  surprise — for  it  cannot  be  indignation — 
a  few  samples  of  this  marvelous  and  hyperbolical  literature  ? 

In  one  of  these  journals  the  Minister  is  represented  as 
arrayed  in  his  insignia  of  office  and  knocking  at  the  door  of  the 
harem,  just  as  "  His  Majesty  is  putting  on  his  Turkish  rug  and 
tying  his  Daghestan  around  his  high  standing  collar!"  What 
follows  is  none  the  less  unexpected  from  the  newspaper  :  The 
•door  is  opened  by  an  ebony  Ethiopian,  as  innocent  of  raiment  as 
if  there  had  never  been  an  apple  in  the  Garden   of  Eden. 

"Well,  Mungo,"  says  the  Minister,  "  is  the  Son  of  the  Moon 
up  yet?" 

"Walla,  walla  !  "is  his  only  response. 

The  Sultan,  seeing  the  Ethiopian  embarrassed,  has  him 
recalled.  By  a  wave  of  his  hand  he  summons  the  Minister  into 
his  presence. 

"Mr.  Porte,  I  believe?"  says  the  Minister,  who  is  also 
•embarrassed. 

"  That  is  my  name.  Take  an  ottoman  ?"  replies  the  Sultan, 
motioning  to  a  small  foot-stool  at  his  side. 

•*  Thanks,  "  says  the  Minister.  Thereupon  the  interview 
proceeds. 

"  I  have  come,  my  Lord  High  and  Mighty,  to  let  you  know 
that  my  nation  isn't  afraid  of  the  *  unspeakable  '  Turk  any  more 
than  it  is  of  any  other  furren'  bird." 


68  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

The  Sultan,  not  understanding  this  American  argot^  makes  a 
salaam.  Whereupon  the  Minister  offers  to  wager  even  ducats 
that  if  he  was  dressed  in  the  loose  fashion  of  the  Sultan  himself, 
he  (the  ^[inister)  could  touch  his  toes  without  bending  his  knees, 
as  many  times  in  an  hour  as  the  Porte  himself. 

"  Do  you  smoke  ?  "  inquires  the  Sultan,  ignoring  the  chal- 
lenge and  the  wager. 

The  Minister  avoids  smoking,  but  remarks  : 

"  I  am  powerful  thirsty.  High  and  Most  Mighty  Lord  of  the 
Horizon!  If  you  will  give  me  a  drink  of  that  lighted  concoc- 
tion of  yours  I  will  be  obliged,"  says  the  Minister,  pointing  to 
the  chibouque  at  the  Sultan's  side,  thinking  it  to  be  a  demijohn 
of  rakee,  from  Trebisonde. 

The  Sultan  tolerates  this  unwonted  familiarity.  He  gathers 
his  family  around  him. 

"  These  ladies  here  are  your  daughters,  I  presume,"  re- 
marks the  Minister. 

"  You  have  a  sublime  father,  young  ladies  ! " 

"  Please  confine  your  attentions  to  business,"  remarks  the 
Sultan,  flushing  to  the  roots  of  his  fez. 

"Well,  I  do  mean  business  !  What's  the  matter  with  your 
daughters,  anyhow  ?  Peek-a-boo  !  Ah,  there  !  I  see  you  " — 
sings  out  the  festive  Envoy  to  a  beautiful  Circassian,  who  wears 
the  customary'  mosquito-proof  cloak  over  her  shoulders  and  a 
fluflfy  band  of  tulle  over  the  lower  part  of  her  face. 

*'  Look  you  !  "  says  the  Sultan,  "  Child  of  the  Setting  Sun  ! 
Look  you,  Sir-r-h  !     I  will  order  a  bastinado  for  you  !" 

"  Two  of  them,"  suggests  the  Minister — "on  toast !" 

"  You  are  rushing  business,  young  man,"  says  Abdul, 
without  quailing,  and  reaching  for  his  cimeter. 

"  Put  up  your  cheese  knife  !  "  says  the  Minister.  "  It  doesn't 
scare.  The  sooner  you  simmer  with  your  cimeter  the  better  it 
will  be  for  all  hands — and  heads,"  stroking  his  black  beard 
composedly. 

Evidently  the  Minister  has  the  advantage,  for  he  exclaims 
defiantly,  while  waving  an  imaginary  star-spangled  flag  above  the 
star  and  crescent : 

"  Sew  me  up,  and  drop  me  in  the  Bosporus,  if  you  can  ? 
Hah  !     Hah  !     You  tremble  !     Ta-ta  !  " 

Before  the  Sultan  could  have  the  Minister  throttled — for  so 


THE  LAST  SALAAM  OF  THE  DOOR. 


69 


writes  the  American  journal — the  Envoy  goes  singing  down  the 

palatial  carpets  to  the  front  door  : 

Porte,  Port6, 
Fat,  fair  and  fort^. 
Don't  try  on  me  your  manners  hort6." 

The  Minister  then  salaamed  the  door. 

One  of  our  poetasters,  in  singmg  of  the  disaster  to  the  steam- 


ship Gallia,  which  brought  us  across  the  ocean,  attributed  the 
breaking  of  the  shaft  to  some  joke  of  the  Minister,  and  the  engi- 
neer begged  him  not  to  joke  again.  The  shaft  of  the  ship  broke, 
and  could  not,  or  would  not,  again  make  any  stroke ;  and  all,  said 
the  facetious  journalist,  as  the  sad  result  of  a  joke. 

These  home  felicities  anent  the  head  of  the  Legation  might 
have  been  withstood  ;  but  the  iconoclastic  journalist  dared  to  lay 
his  mace,  like  the  second  Mahmoud,  upon  the  person  of  the  Kavass 
— our  guide.  Janizary  and  friend  !     What  is  a  Kavass,  and  who 


JO  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

is  he  ?  He  has  a  history  of  hundreds  of  years  ;  and  ours  at  the- 
Porte  is  none  other  than  Mehmet,  who  has  served  the  American 
Legation  for  thirty  years. 

Every  personage  of  old  Turkey,  except  the  Janizary,  is 
represented  in  the  mosaic  of  different  people  and  races  at 
Constantinople.  The  Janizary  is  represented  by  the  Kavass. 
This  ofificial  goes  ahead  of  the  Envoy  when  afoot,  or  with  him  on 
the  launch  or  ferry,  to  protect  him  from  the  Moslem.  He  is  an 
antique  repetition  of  the  old  guard,  chosen  from  the  Janizary 
corps  to  guard  the  Giaour  or  Christian  from  the  insults  of  the 
Mahometan.  He  comes  down  from  the  olden  time,  and  is  as- 
much  out  of  place  as  an  old  flint-lock  musket  in  modern  battles. 

Such  an  odd,  old,  obsolete  genius  of  antiquity  is  our  Kavass 
Mehmet.  He  is  the  picture  of  goodness.  His  photograph  I 
found  in  the  establishment  here  of  Abdullah  Freres.  He 
accompanies  the  Minister  and  family,  when  they  take  their  walks- 
abroad  along  the  stony  paths  of  the  shores  of  the  Bosporus,  or  when 
the  launch  lands  them  at  an  Asiatic  palace  across  the  Straits  ;  or 
when  the  Minister  makes  his  calls  at  the  Porte  on  the  Ministers 
of  State,  or  upon  the  Foreign  Ministers  upon  the  upper  Bos- 
porus ;  or  when  they  go  a-shoppmg  in  the  Greek  shops  of  Pera  or 
in  the  bazaars  of  Stamboul.  On  these  occasions  the  Kavass  is  sure 
to  be  the  accompaniment.  The  American  Kavass  weighs  35a 
pounds.  He  wears  a  blue  frock  coat  braided  in  black,  a  golden 
belt,  a  sword  in  a  silver  sheath,  and  pistols  of  portentous  size 
and  antiquity.  He  orders  all  the  urchins,  donkies,  arabis  and 
beggars  out  of  the  ministerial  path.  He  has  his  uses  in  the 
narrow  streets. 

It  was  this  valuable  adjunct  of  our  diplomatic  Diversions  whom 
the  caricaturist  represented  quite  otherwise  than  he  appears  in  the 
picture  Jierein  presented.  That  he  is  heavy,  grave  and  gor- 
geous in  full  attire,  is  easily  obser\'ed.  That  he  is  handsome,  is 
true,  if  to  be  so,  be  to  be  good  and  honest.  I  vindicate  him  by 
this  faithful  portraiture. 

It  was  hardly  a  '*  Diversion,"  but  still  it  is  worth  mention- 
ing as  one  of  the  encouraging  features  of  our  system  of  diplo- 
macy, that  almost  the  moment  I  brought  our  Legation  out  of  a 
dirty  side-alley  in  Constantinople  and  fixed  it  in  a  respectable 
quarter  and  in  nice  chambers,  at  less  expense,  my  attention  was 
called  by  the  home  authorities,  to  a  most  unusual  contingent  ex- 


A.  A.  Gargiulo, 

DRAGOMAN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  LEGATION. 


72 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


pense.  It  was  not  peculiar  to  Turkey.  It  was  said  to  be  incurred 
by  our  Ministers  in  <' non-Cliristian  countries,"  By  way  of 
illustration,  these  authorities  cited  some  charges  in  the  accounts 
of  Mr.  Emmet,  our  able  Secretary  of  Legation,  and  the  Charge 
before  my  advent  in  Turkey.  They  likewise  hauled  Mr.  Benjamin, 
late  Minister  to  Persia,  over  hot  coals.  The  object  of  all  this  was, 
to  learn  whether  the  needs  of  this  kind  of  service  in  these  distant 
lands  absolutely  required  these  expenses.  At  once  many  of 
these  expenses  were  discontinued  by  the  Department,  after  a  full 
investigation  by  myself  of  every  item  connected  with  the  Lega- 
tion. Among  these  items,  which  for  fifty  years  had  existed,  was 
an  allowance  of  four  horses  to  the  Minister  and  one  to  the  drago- 
man. These  were  disallowed  promptly;  although  they  had  existed 
from  the  time  of  Commodore  Porter's  ministry  in  1830.  Each 
horse  was  accounted  to  consume  sixteen  dollars  a  quarter.  These 
were  allowances,  as  commutation  for  the  extra  expense  of  traversing 
the  narrow  and  horrid  streets,  where  carriages  were  impossible, 
and  which  both  Minister  and  dragoman  were  compelled  to  trav- 
erse, every  day,  either  to  the  palace  or  to  the  Porte.  This  com- 
mutation of  horse  was  an  economical  convenience  to  the  Minister 
and  dragoman.  My  attempts  in  Congress  for  economy,  and  my 
report  on  the  subject  to  the  Department,  seemed  to  arouse  all 
the  exquisite  fun  and  dainty  deviltry  belonging  to  the  Mephisto- 
phelian  press  of  my  native  land.  With  the  aid  of  some  clerks  in 
the  State  Department  or  the  Treasury,  the  public  press  was 
enabled  to  enlighten  my  fellow-citizens  about  certain  sudden 
changes  from  a  stingy  Congressman  to  an  extravagant  Minister  ! 
I  was  represented,  both  by  word  and  caricature,  as  riding  on  four 
splendid  Arab  steeds  bare-back — I  mean  the  steeds  bare-back. 
Of  what  use  was  it  to  deny  this  unbridled  luxury  !  Need  I  say 
that  at  that  time  I  was  lying  upon  an  ottoman  well  racked  with 
the  sciatica  ?  But  the  Jeffersonian  simplicity  of  the  Administra- 
tion was  demolished  by  these  fantastic  and  fancied  Oriental 
pictures  of  a  ministerial  circus  performance  over  the  horrible 
pavements  of  the  capital  of  Constantine  ! 

The  most  hyperbolical  of  these  exaggerations  of  American 
humor  had  reference  to  the  reception  described  in  a  preceding 
chapter.  Even  alliteration's  artful  aid  was  called  in,  and  the 
sobriquet  of  the  Minister  was  used  to  indicate  the  scintillation 
which  "  Sunset "  and    the    Sultan    invariably  produced    in  their 


74 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


Stances.  My  meeting  with  the  Sultan  is  thus  described  by  one  of 
our  humorous  papers  ;  I  need  not  mention  its  name,  but  it  girdles 
the  earth  in  forty  minutes: 

They — Sultan  and  Minister — meet  on  the  shore  of  the  Golden  Horn.  The 
Sultan  advances  a  few  paces  and  says  : 

"Gracious  Son  of  the  Mighty  and  Glorious  West,  I  salute  thee.  Star  of 
my  Soul  and  Apple  of  my  Eye,  welcome  to  the  Sublime  Porte.  I  hail  thee  as 
a  bubbling  fountain  of  delectation,  dearer  to  my  sight  than  the  rose  to  the 
nightingale,  more  precious  than  the  shade  of  the  date-palm  to  the  weary  trav- 
eler on  the  desert.     Thrice  welcome  to  these  classic  shores." 

Then  the  Minister  responds  : 

••O  High  and  Mighty  Sultan,  Child  of  the  East,  Playmate  of  the  Even- 
ing Star,  Companion  ot  the  Vagrant  Zephyr,  Old  Chum  of  the  Red,  Red  Rose, 
I  salute  thee  and  thank  thee.  I  greatly  rejoice  in  the  decision  of  my  master 
at  home,  who  hath  sent  me  to  these  classic  and  legendary  shores.  May  our 
communion  and  companionship  overflow  with  joy  and  pleasantness,  without  a 
fleeting  shadow  to  darken  the  sunshine  of  our  content.  Again  I  thank  thee, 
and  connect  the  kiss  of  international  good-will  with  the  flower-garden  ot  thy 
Eastern  cheek,  O  Vermilion  Rose-Tint  of  the  Fading  Twilight,  Soft  Liniment 
of  My  Weary  Frame,  and  Precious  Pad  of  My  Liver." 

We  are  led  to  exclaim,  in  the  language  of  Puck's  own  motto, 
"  What  fools  these  mortals  be."  But  we  must  remember  that 
our  American  extravaganzas  come  out  of  the  Orient  through 
the  Celtic  medium  ;  and,  as  these  chapters  will  prove,  the  Orient 
is  of  this  quality  of  humor,  '<  all  compact." 

The  very  nature  of  the  East — physical  and  human — speaks  of 
"  skies  full  of  splendid  moons  and  shooting  stars,  and  spouting 
exhalations — diamond  fires."  If  in  pursuing  the  behest  of  the 
religion  of  the  East,  we  make  the  West  tributary  to  Oriental 
doctrine  and  contemplation,  may  we  not  be  excused  for  modeling 
our  Brobdingnagian  phrases  on  the  spire-steeple  style  ?  Espe- 
cially when  these  phrases  are  so  neatly  turned  as  in  the  verses  of 

an  Ohio  poet : 

I  am  very  glad  to  meet  you,  Mr.  Cox  ; 
With  a  royal  shake,  I  greet  you,  Mr.  Cox  ; 

Just  seat  yourself  at  ease,  sir, 

And  take  some  snuff  and  sneeze,  sir , 
I  would  like  to  sleep  and  eat  you,  Mr.  Cox. 

Oh  America,  I  love  it,  Mr.  Cox  ; 

I  am  great,  but  not  above  it,  Mr.  Cox  ; 

I  hear  the  climate's  healthy, 
And  the  country's  very  wealthy  — 
Oh,  that  gold,  I'd  like  some  of  it,  Mr.  Cox. 


THE  SULTAN- A  SOLID  CHARACTER.  75 

You  shall  take  the  place  of  Wallace,  Mr.  Cox  ; 
By  familiar  name  shall  call  us,  Mr.  Cox  ; 

We  will  have  our  fun  together, 

And  we'll  never  mind  the  weather, 
For  we'll  have  a  hack  to  haul  us,  Mr.  Cox. 

More  especially,  may  we  not  be  pardoned  when  we  regard  the 
splendid  empire  which  this  Emperor  still  controls  ;  and  likening, 
as  I  often  do,  its  primary  elements  to  those  of  our  own  country — 
with  its  diversity  in  unity — turn  from  these  flippant  and  harmless 
pleasantries  of  our  jolly  journalists,  to  the  solid  forces  of  rule  and 
character  which  the  Emperor  displays  in  the  midst  of  all  attempts 
to  despoil  him  of  his  territory  or  derogate  from  his  good  name. 

Properly  to  dignify  this  Ruler  and  Caliph  of  the  great  Eastern 
country,  and  to  correct  the  errors  which  too  much  frivolity  may 
have  created  in  reference  to  his  character,  let  me  in  the  next 
chapter  make  a  compendious  statement  of  these  historic 
realms. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COMPENDIUM    OF   OTTOMAN   HISTORY. 

Turkey  is  not  what  she  was;  but  she  is  yet  an  empire,  politi- 
cally and  otherwise.  Her  possessions  in  Europe  are  peopled  with 
8,650,000  folks  of  divers  races.  This  number  includes  Roumelia, 
which  is  nearly  autonomous,  and  Bosnia,  Herzegovina  and  Bul- 
garia. The  latter  is,  as  yet,  a  tributary  principality.  Outside  of 
Europe  lies  the  real  Ottoman  power.  Counting  Egypt,  Tripoli 
and  some  of  the  Grecian  isles,  and  not  counting  the  sacred  rule  in 
Asia  and  Africa,  the  Sultan,  Abdul-Hamid,  is  the  Emperor  of 
at  least  36,000,000  of  people,  and,  as  the  Mahometan  father, 
of  nearly  two  hundred  millions  of  the  faithful. 

This  does  not  count  Tunis,  which  France  has.  It  does  not 
count  other  realms,  as  India,  Borneo — aye,  even  to  Congo, 
Liberia  and  Guinea — which  have  devotees  of  the  Islam  faith. 

Constantinople  alone  has  over  seven  hundred  thousand 
people.  Reckoning  the  people  along  the  Bosporus,  it  is 
double  that  number.  They  live  mostly  at  or  about  the  old  point, 
the  ancient  Byzantium.  They  have  a  grand  depot  of  commerce 
and  intercourse.  But  their  harbor  really  runs  from  Kavak,  or, 
rather,  from  Fanaraki  and  Fener,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Black 
Sea,  to  the  Dardanelles.  There  these  clear,  deep  and  flowing 
waters  connect  with  the  tideless  Mediterranean. 

Counting  Bulgaria,  Bosnia,  Herzegovina,  Roumelia,  Servia, 
Wallachia  and  Moldavia — Turkey  in  Europe  is  roughly  estimated 
at  an  area  of  one  million  eight  hundred  square  miles.  Deduct 
about  one-fourth  of  this  territory  for  the  recent  changes  since  the 
Berlin  treaty,  and  you  will  have  a  reasonable  estimate  of  her 
European  domain. 

A  Turkish  historian  remarks  that,  as  in  gazing  at  the  sun  the 
eye  becomes  dazzled,  so  the  mind  becomes  confused  when  it 
attempts  to  regard  the  brilliancy  of  the  career  of  this  illustrious 
Turkish  race.  It  is  not  difficult,  however,  to  trace  this  race  to 
one  of    the  five   nomadic  tribes  which  comprise  the  Turanian 

76 


NEBULOUS  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  TURKS.  77 

family.  They  have  been  called  Tartars.  These  tribes  gave  such 
populousness  as  Central  Asia  had  in  the  early  centuries — even 
beyond  the  Caspian.  It  is  supposed  that  the  name  Turk  is 
derived  from  the  Chinese  appellation  Tu-kiu.  The  Turks  were 
an  imperial  race,  who  lived  west  of  China  two  hundred  years  and 
more  before  the  Christian  era.  The  historic  pen  becomes  more 
or  less  confused,  as  it  undertakes  to  separate  the  Huns,  Tartars 
and  Mongols,  who,  under  their  respective  chiefs,  ravaged  from 
time  to  time  the  Asiatic  and  a  large  part  of  the  European  world. 
But  out  of  seeming  confusion,  and  after  many  dispersions,  it  is 
tolerably  sure  that  the  Turks  became  more  or  less  subservient 
to  a  great  Khan  in  the  gold  mountains  of  Altai,  There  they 
became  forgers  of  iron  and  makers  of  weapons.  From  these  men 
the  Turks  of  to-day  claim  their  origin.  The  iron-working  nations 
— including  the  large  family  of  Smiths,  whose  ancestor  was  Tubal- 
Cain — have  ever  held  the  world  in  thrall.  The  Turks,  with  their 
iron  weapons  of  that  early  day,  cast  off  the  yoke  which  pressed 
upon  them,  and  established  a  royal  camp  in  the  gold  mountains. 
They  became  nomadic  on  the  Asiatic  plateau. 

What  religion  they  had  before  their  conversion  to  Mahometan- 
ism  is  rather  nebulous.  They  worshipped  the  elements.  They 
made  sacrifices  to  the  Supreme  Being.  They  were  more  or  less 
controlled  by  the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster.  Their  criminal  code  was 
strict.  Theft  was  punished  by  tenfold  restitution,  and  other 
crimes  more  heinous,  with  death.  To  show  their  soldierly  origin 
and  aptitude,  no  chastisement  was  considered  too  severe  for  the 
coward.  Of  course  they  met  many  rivals  in  arms  before  they 
crossed  into  Europe.  They  fought  the  Persians,  but  still  they 
moved  on,  eddying  hither  and  thither,  adding  to  their  strength  by 
their  warlike  energies.  Sometimes  they  united  with  others; 
oftentimes  they  had  Greeks  for  allies  as  well  as  enemies.  The 
Romans  sometimes  sought  alliance  with  them,  to  strengthen  the 
wings  of  their  advancing  eagles. 

When  Mahomet  appeared  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  cent- 
ury, his  religion  gave  unity  and  zealotry  to  the  Turkish  tribes 
Thereafter,  out  of  these  traditions,  half  fact  and  half  fancy  per- 
haps, the  history  of  Turkey  takes  authentic  shape.  While  many 
Turkish  princes  ruled  in  Palestine,  Syria  and  Egypt,  the  one  great 
tribe  of  Seljuk,  known  as  Turkoman,  inhabited  the  district  of 
Bokara.     From  this  tribe  descended  the  victorious  Turks  who 


yS  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

carried  the  banner  of  the  Prophet  under  the  walls  of  Vienna  only- 
two  hundred  years  ago,  and  who,  defying  augury,  remain  a 
power  in  Europe  until  this  day. 

After  one  of  their  great  victories,  these  Seljukians  assembled 
to  elect  a  king.  The  question  naturally  arose,  among  so  many 
splendid  warriors.  Who  shall  be  chosen?  The  mode  adopted 
for  its  solution  is  singular.  A  number  of  arrows  are  inscribed, 
each  with  the  name  of  a  tribe,  family  and  candidate.  The 
arrows  are  tied  in  a  bundle.  A  child  draws  out  the  lucky  one. 
Togrul  Beg,  the  grandson  of  Seljuk,  and  a  lineal  descendant  of 
the  Turanian  emperor,  thus  becomes  the  first  Sultan  elect  His 
kingdom,  through  division,  falls  into  decay.  Out  of  it  springs  a 
clansman  of  the  same  tribe.  His  name  is  Soliman.  He  is  with 
the  first  of  the  Turkish  hordes  that  land  in  Europe.  He 
becomes  an  ally  of  one  of  the  Greek  contestants  for  the  Byzantine 
throne,  and  finally  the  guest  of  the  successful  rival,  by  whom  he 
is  royally  entertained  at  Scutari,  on  the  Bosporus,  with  his  two 
thousand  cavalry. 

From  this  time  on  the  Turkish  power  rapidly  develops,  esjie- 
cially  in  Asia  Minor.  It  continues  to  increase  until  the  thir- 
teenth century,  when  it  meets  the  Tartar  wave  of  conquest,  led  by 
the  genius  of  Genghis-Khan,  of  their  own  stock.  Before  it,  falls 
this  Seljukian  dynasty  ;  but  only  temporarily.  When  the  great 
Mogul,  Ghengis-Khan,  loses  his  conquests  by  too  much  extension, 
the  Turks  recover  from  their  disasters.  They  renew  their 
-war  against  the  Greeks.  They  are  joined  by  their  brethren 
who  had  emigrated  from  their  Asiatic  home  in  Khorassan.  It  so 
happens — perhaps  the  Turks  would  call  it  destiny — that  Erto- 
ghral,  the  leader  of  these  kinsmen  of  the  Turks,  in  his  movement 
westward  from  Kliorassan  finds  himself  and  his  four  hundred 
families  in  the  presence  of  two  contending  armies.  He  takes 
sides  at  once.  He  is  chivalrous:  he  sides  with  the  weaker. 
It  turns  out  that  the  weaker  side  Mrins.  It  also  turns  out  that  it 
was  the  side  of  the  Sultan  Alladin  himself.  Ertoghral  becomes 
an  Emir  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea.  He  continues  the 
Turkish  war  against  the  Greeks. 

By  this  time  we  approach  solid  historic  ground.  It  is  the  last 
year  but  one  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Now  arises  a  military 
genius.  He  gives  prestige  and  name  to  the  proudest  of  the 
Turkish  race.     His  name  is  Osman,  or  Othman.     He  is  a  states- 


GIRDING  ON  THE  SWORD  OF  OSMAN. 
79 


8o  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

man  as  well  as  a  soldier.  His  is  the  physical  arm  which 
strikes,  and  the  dauntless  courage  which  inspires  his  soldiers. 
In  his  reign  the  arts  of  peace  as  well  as  of  war  are  cultivated. 
These  include  the  erection  of  mosques  and  the  education 
of  children,  the  proper  tenure  of  land  and  its  cultivation, 
and  religious  toleration  to  the  Christians  whom  they  con- 
quer. It  was  in  this  Osmanli  statesmanship  that  the  many 
liberalities  known  as  the  Capitulations  of  Turkey  had  their  origin. 
It  is  said  that  Othman  ruled  even  after  his  death  ;  so  great  was 
the  influence  of  both  the  civil  and  the  military  organizations 
which  he  had  created.  It  is  the  sword  of  Othman — to  which 
I  have  adverted  in  a  former  chapter — which  every  successive 
Sultan  must  wear  at  the  coronation.  That  ceremony  is 
not  complete  until  the  act  of  girding  it  upon  each  successive 
Sultan  is  enacted.  He  is  then  the  Emperor  of  the  Ottomans. 
Othman's  counsels  are  a  royal  testament  to  the  Turk.  It  is  his 
line   which,  in   direct  descent,   rules  in   Constantinople   to-day. 

His  son  Orchan  improves  the  mheritance  which  he  receives 
from  his  father.  He  increases  the  army  and  extends  his  sway  to 
the  Bosporus.  The  arts  and  sciences  are  encouraged.  The  basis 
of  Turkish  naval  power  is  laid.  Of  course  the  Turks  are 
more  or  less  belligerent  all  the  time.  The  weakness  of  the 
Greek  empire  leads  to  a  call  upon  Orchan  for  aid.  He  unites  his 
forces,  and  even  his  family,  with  the  Emperor  at  Byzantium. 

A  son  of  Orchan  succeeds.  He  bears  the  banner  of  the  Cre- 
scent into  Thrace  across  the  Dardanelles.  Then  Amurath,  as  his 
successor,  advances  that  banner  over  Thrace,  and  fixes  his  capi- 
tal at  Adrianople.  His  conquests  north  of  the  Balkans  make  him 
its  grand  suzerain.  Servia,  Bosnia,  Bulgaria  and  Albania  bow 
beneath  his  sceptre. 

If  you  should  visit  Broussa,  you  would  see  with  interest  the 
capital  and  the  tombs  of  the  founders  of  the  Turkish  empire. 
There  are  the  mortuary  chapels  of  the  Sultans  Osman  and 
Orchan.  They  stand  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Greek  cathedral 
dedicated  to  St.  Elias.  Osman  died  soon  after  the  conquest  of 
the  city  by  his  son  Orkhan,  and  was,  by  his  own  desire,  interred 
in  the  building, which  was  converted  into  a  mausoleum.  The  large 
drum  of  Osman — one  of  the  emblems  of  royalty,  given  to  him  by 
Alladin,  Sultan  of  Iconium — was  suspended  over  the  head  of  the 
tomb,  whence  the  name  of  Daoul  Monastir  (the  Monastery  of  the 


82  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Drum),  by  which  the  building  was  subsequently  known.  The 
chapel  was  completely  shattered  by  the  earthquake  of  1855,  The 
modern  buildings  now  covering  the  remains  of  the  founders  of 
the  Ottoman  dynasty  preserve  no  trace  of  the  architectural  beauty 
of  the  old  church  of  St.  Elias.  The  mausoleum  of  Sultan  Orkhan, 
in  the  same  enclosure,  contains  many  family  tombs,  but  that  of  his 
first  wife,  the  virtuous  and  beneficent  Christian,  Princess  Nilou- 
fer,  finds  no  place  there  :  she  was  interred  near  the  wall  of  the 
enclosure.  The  sketch  herein  represents  the  condition  of  these 
famous  tombs. 

A  more  elaborate  statement  of  the  rise  of  the  Moslem  power 
and  its  progress  will  be  found  in  the  subsequent  chapter  upon  the 
Caliphate.  The  advancement  of  the  Turkish  secular  empire 
runs  hand  in  hand  with  the  growth  of  the  Caliphate  and  its 
extension  over  three  continents. 

The  number  of  sovereigns  who  have  successively  occupied 
the  throne  raised  by  Osman,  including  its  founder  and  His 
present  Majesty,  is  thirty-three.  It  may  be  interesting,  as  each 
was  an  unquestioned  Caliph,  as  well  as  a  Padishah,  to  give  their 
names  in  chronological  order,  viz. : 

1.  The  Sultan  Osman,  or  Othman,  surnamed  Ghazi,  or  the 
Conqueror.  He  began  his  reign  in  the  year  a.  d.  1299.  He 
reigned  27  years. 

2.  Sultan  Orchan;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1326.  He  reigned  34 
years. 

3.  Sultan  Amurath  T.  (Murad);  proclaimed  a.  d.  1360.  He 
reigned  22  years. 

4.  Sultan  Bajazet,  the  Thunderer;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1389. 
He  reigned  13  years.  The  Interregnum  of  Suleiman  and 
Moussa  then  began.     It  la.sted  11  years. 

5.  Mohamet  I.,  the  Gentleman;  proclaimed  a.  d.  141 3.  He 
reigned  8  years. 

6.  Amurath  II.  (Murad);  proclaimed  a.  d.  142 i.  He  reigned 
30  years. 

7.  Mohamed  II.,  the  Conqueror  of  Constantinople  ;  pro- 
claimed A.  D.  145 1,  and  reigned  30  years, 

8.  Bajazet  II.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1481.     He  reigned  30  years. 

9.  Selim  I.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  15 12.     He  reigned  8  years. 
10.  Suleiman  I,,  the  Grand  and  Lawgiver;  proclaimed  a  d, 

1520.     He  reigned  46  years. 


GENEALOGICAL  TREE  OF  THE  OTTOMAN  RULERS. 


83 


$4  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

11.  Selim  II.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1566.     He  reigned  8  years. 

12.  Amurath  III.  (Murad);  proclaimed  a.  d.  1574.  He 
reigned  21  years. 

13.  Mohamed  III.;  proclaimed  A.  D.  1595.  He  reigned  8  years. 

14.  Ahmet  I.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1603.     ^^  reigned  14  years. 

15.  Mustapha  I.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1617.  He  reigned  i  year 
and  was  deposed. 

16.  Osman  II.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  16 18.     He  reigned  4  years. 
Mustapha  was  then  proclaimed  the  second  time,  a.  d.  1622. 

He  reigned  i  year. 

17.  Amurath  IV.  (Murad);  proclaimed  a.  d.  1623.  He  reigned 
17  years. 

18.  Ibrahim  I.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1640.     He  reigned  8  years. 

19.  Mohamed  IV.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1648.  He  reigned  39 
years. 

20.  Suleiman  II, ;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1687.     He  reigned  4  years. 

21.  Ahmet  II.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1691.     He  reigned  4  years. 

22.  Mustapha  II. ;  proclaimed  A.  D.  1695.  He  reigned  8  years. 

23.  Ahmet  HI.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1703.    He  reigned  27  years. 

24.  Mahmoud  I. ;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1730.  He  reigned  24  years. 

25.  Osman  III.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1754.     He  reigned  3  years. 

26.  Mustapha  III.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1757.  He  reigned  17 
years. 

27.  Abd-ul-Hamit  I.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1774.  He  reigned  15 
years. 

28.  Selim  III.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1789.     He  reigned  18  years. 

29.  Mustapha  IV. ;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1807.    He  reigned  i  year. 

30.  Mahmoud  II.;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1808.  He  reigned  31 
years. 

31.  Abd-ul-Medjid;  proclaimed  a.  d.  1839.  He  reigned  22 
years. 

32.  Abd-ul-Aziz;  proclaimed  a.  D.  1861.  He  reigned  14  years, 
and  was  deposed.  Murat  V.  was  then  proclaimed,  but  not 
crowned.  He  reigned  only  a  few  months.  He  was  deposed  for 
alleged  insanity.     He  is  still  living,  in  close  confinement. 

33.  Abd-ul-Hamid  II.  He  was  proclaimed  a.  d.  1875.  ^e 
was  born  on  the  2  2d  of  September,  1842.  He  is  the  thirty-fourth 
sovereign  of  the  Ottoman  dynasty,  and  the  second  son  of  Abdul 
Medjid,  who  died  on  the  25th  of  June,  1861.  He  has  four  sons. 
It  was  the  eldest,  Mehmet  Selim,  born  on  the  ist  of  January,  1871,^ 


THE  SUL  TAN'S  RELA  TIVES.  8  5 

with  whom  we  dined  at  the  palace,  but  he  does  not  inherit  the 
throne.  Two  others  are  respectively  about  nine  years  old,  one  being 
born  in  February,  1878,  and  the  other  in  the  next  month.  He 
has  a  daughter,  Zekihe,  born  in  1871,  and  another,  Naime,  born 
in  August,  1876.  His  brothers  are  of  great  consequence  in  a 
dynastic  point  of  view.  He  has  five  brothers,  one  older  than 
himself — Murad,  who  is  not  competent  to  rule.  The  youngest 
is  sixteen  years  of  age.  He  has  three  sisters,  the  eldest  about  his 
own  age.  Besides  an  aunt,  he  has  nine  cousins.  The  brother 
next  in  the  order  of  succession  under  the  Ottoman  law  is 
Mehmet  Reshad.  He  is  now  about  forty-three  years  of  age. 
These  relatives  are  often  seen  driving  or  riding  about  the  city, 
and  not  infrequently  at  the  "Sweet  Waters"  of  Europe,  where 
every  class  of  people  congregate.  They  are  of  distinguished 
appearance,  dressed  in  Frank  costume,  except  that  each  and  all 
wear  the  inevitable  fez. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    ORIGIN,  POWER   AND    FALL   OF   THE   JANIZARIES. 

One  of  the  determinative  factors  in  the  history  of  Turkey 
ought  not  to  be  omitted  from  this  compendium.  For  a 
time,  more  important  than  Sultans,  more  potential  than  the 
Crescent,  and  almost  rivaling  the  religious  element  of  the  Ottoman 
empire,  was .  the  organization  known  as  the  Janizaries.  They 
were  a  body  of  men  who  had  their  origin  in  the  reign  of  Amurath,. 
the  son  of  Orchan.  They  were  born  Christians,  but  in  their  edu- 
cation they  became  Moslem.  They  were  fearfully  destructive  of 
the  Christian  people.  As  the  ally  of  the  Turk,  they  held  Europe 
in  terror  for  many  hundred  years. 

It  may  be  asked  :  How  could  such  a  body  of  Christian  men 
become  such  zealots  in  the  Mahometan  faith  and  in  the  Turkish- 
army  ? 

By  the  Mahometan  law  the  Sultan  is  entitled  to  one-fifth 
of  the  spoils  taken  in  battle.  Amurath  applied  this  law 
by  the  selection  of  the  best  captive  Christian  youths.  These 
he  trained  in  the  Islam  religion  and  in  the  use  of  arms.  They 
were  called  Yengi-cheri,  or  new  soldiers.  Their  faces,  like  their 
costumes,  were  white,  which  was  interpreted  to  mean,  shining  and 
cheerful.  They  became  the  flower  of  the  Turkish  army.  The 
same  body  was  afterwards  recruited  from  the  Christian  youths 
whose  parents  were  Turkish  subjects. 

No  man  can  be  compelled  to  serve  in  the  Turkish  army,  even 
yet,  who  is  not  a  Mahometan.  The  strain  for  war  material  upon 
the  Mahometan  population  was  very  great,  but  it  was  relieved  by 
the  education  of  these  Christian  youths  in  the  Moslem  faith. 
What  battles  these  troops  gained,  how  they  were  handled  at 
the  final  taking  of  Constantinople,  and  how  at  last  they  were 
utterly  destroyed  by  Sultan  Mahmoud  II.,  after  nearly  five 
hundred  years  of  existence,  is  a  conspicuous  part  of  Turkish 
history. 

This  corps  of  Janizaries  was  the  first  example  of  a  regular 

86 


AGA,    OR   CHIEF  OF   THE  JANIZARIES. 
87 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


COMMISSARY  OF  THE  JANIZARIES. 


PICTURES  OF  THE  JANIZARIES.  89 

standing  army  upon  our  planet.  They  were  a  sort  of  body-guard. 
Like  the  Roman  pretorians,  which,  under  Vitellius,  numbered 
sixteen  thousand,  they  controlled  the  State.  They  made 
and  unmade  the  Turkish  Caesars.  They  became  the  instru- 
ments of  despotic  rule,  and  that  rule  was  their  own.  Their 
force  supplanted  the  patriarchal  form,  which  always  had  mitigat- 
ing circumstances  amidst  the  worst  surroundings.  Their  excesses 
went  far  in  the  time  of  Mustapha  the  Fourth,  who  came  to  the 
throne  in  1807.  When  they  could  not  use  him  as  their  tool,  so 
as  to  repeal  the  reforms  of  his  predecessor,  they  deposed  him  from 
power.  They  murdered  the  Sultan  Selim,  and  endeavored  to 
assassinate  his  brother,  Mahmoud. 

When  these  Janizaries  chose  to  rebel,  it  was,  in  one  sense,  a 
rebellion  of  the  stomach.  They  turned  their  kettles  bottom  up, 
as  a  symbol  of  their  disregard.  They  thus  refused  their  food, 
like  -  spoiled  children,  and  would  not  be  dependent  upon  the 
Sultan,  who  would  not  grant  all  their  caprices. 

The  Janizaries  were  not  all  destroyed  by  Sultan  Mahmoud 
the  Second.  They  have  sonietimes  reappeared  in  certain  neigh- 
borhoods in  the  same  uniform,  but  not  with  the  same  intense  and 
active  organization.  Mahmoud  the  Second  broke  their  power. 
He  was  the  son  of  the  first  Abdul  Hamid,  and  the  father  of 
Abdul  Medjid  and  Abdul  Aziz,  and  therefore  the  grandfather 
of  the  present  Sultan. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  make  even  a  brief  sketch  of 
this  remarkable  corps,  without  giving  some  idea  of  the  pictur- 
esqueness  of  their  white  uniform  and  of  their  arms.  I 
have  been  fortunate  enough  to  find  in  Constantinople  a 
volume  which  bears  evidence  of  being  printed  both  in  that  city 
and  Paris  in  1882.  It  is  a  rare  album.  It  contains  the  figures, 
uniform,  arms  and  equipage — the  whole  paraphernalia,  m  fact — of 
this  remarkable  corps.  It  is  an  authentic  album.  It  is  compiled  by 
one  Ahmed  Djevad.  He  was  a  colonel  in  the  Turkish  army  and 
a  member  of  the  Government.  It  contains  the  engravings  of 
over  forty  of  the  Janizaries — officers,  soldiers  and  servitors. 
It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  uniqueness  and  picturesqueness 
of  the  costumes  of  these  soldiers.  The  head-dress  has  no  parallel, 
except,  perhaps,  among  the  original  effigies  in  the  Museum  of 
the  Elbecci- Attica,  at  Constantinople,  where  are  preserved,  in  all 
their  splendid  attire  and  gaudy  color,  the  costumes  of  the  officers 


90 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


^ 


CHIEF  OF  THE  JANIZARY  CHASSEURS. 


ARMS  OF  THE  JANIZARIES.  g  1 

of  the  Sultan,  and  of  this  corps — from  the  chiefs  of  the 
Black  and  White  Eunuchs,  with  their  wands  of  silver,  to 
the  cook,  with  his  manifold  involutions  of  turban  and 
sash.  I  present  some  of  these  heads,  to  represent  not  so 
much  the  costumes  of  the  Janizaries,  as  the  wonderful  serenity 
which  seems  to  reign  upon  their  countenances,  beneath  the  enor- 
mous plumes  which  cap  their  head-gear.  I  would  specially  call 
attention  to  the  "  Ousta  du  32  Orta  de  Chasseurs."  He  has 
no  rival  in  costumes,  unless  it  may  be  among  the  warriors  of 
central  Asia  or  interior  Africa. 

This  album  contains  engravings  showing  every  species  of  gun, 
spear  and  arrow.  It  has  pictures  of  arrows  with  torpedo  heads. 
The  variety  of  the  guns,  including  breech-loaders,  is  wonder- 
ful. Many  arms  of  which  modern  invention  has  vaunted 
itself  may  be  seen  among  the  ancient  weapons  in  the  Museum  of 
the  capital.  Thanks  to  Colonel  Djevad,  we  have  a  good  repre- 
sentation of  them.     Their  authenticity  no  one  can  dispute. 

I  insert  herein  a  sketch  of  a  couple  of  javelins  which  I  find 
in  the  book.  Does  the  smoke  that  comes  from  the  point  indicate 
some  tendency  toward  conflagration  ?  With  the  new  element  of 
dynamite,  and  other  explosives  which  have  been  introduced  into 
modern  warfare,  why  may  not  some  inventive  American  make  a 
similar  torpedo,  not  simply  to  be  fired  by  a  gun,  but  by  hand  ! 
It  certainly  would  be  a  safe  mode  of  procedure,  as  there  would 
be  less  danger  to  the  man  who  throws  it  or  to  the  vessel  from 
which  it  is  fired. 

When  Mahmoud  the  Second  came  to  the  throne,  in  1808,  the 
institutions  of  Turkey  depended  upon  the  Janizaries,  When  the 
Grand  Vizier  of  this  Sultan  undertook  to  reinstitute  the  liberal 
measures  for  which  the  Sultan's  uncle  had  died,  the  Janizaries 
revolted.  They  successfully  attacked  the  regular  troops.  They 
'compelled  the  Grand  Vizier  to  take  refuge  in  a  building,  where  he 
perished.  They  attacked  the  seraglio.  They  compelled  the 
Sultan  to  revoke  his  liberal  measures.  But  this  was  the  last 
display  of  Janizary  arrogance.  Their  insolence  hastened  their 
destruction.  They  had  been  used,  through  many  vicissitudes,  by 
the  factions  of  the  empire,  and  had  become  a  standing  menace 
to  its  existence.  It  became  a  question  as  to  their  existence  or 
that  of  the  empire.  The  Sultan  resolved  to  break  them  up.  He 
issued   a  decree  for  this   purpose.     They   rebelled    against   it. 


Q  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 


ARMS   OF  THE  JANIZARIES. 


THE  MASSACRE  OF  THE  JANIZARIES.  93 

Twenty-five  thousand  of  them  sprang  to  arms.  The  Sultan  was 
prepared  for  this.  They  were  exterminated  by  a  massacre,  horri- 
ble in  detail  ;  but  it  was  indispensable,  if  the  efforts  which 
Mahmoud  was  making  for  the  regeneration  of  his  people  were  to 
succeed. 

It  was  not  without  the  exercise  of  firmness  and  courage  that 
Mahmoud  was  enabled  to  suppress  this  corps.  It  was  an  issue  of 
life  or  death  with  him.  History  repeats  itself.  It  is  the  pre- 
torian  of  Rome  or  the  strelitz  of  Russia  over  again.  The  mat- 
ter approaches  a  crisis.  That  crisis  grows  out  of  a  very  insignifi- 
cant affair.  The  indignant  Janizaries  espouse  the  cause  of  a 
comrade  who  has  been  struck  by  an  Egyptian.  They 
show  their  reversed  sign  of  the  camp-kettles.  They  threaten  to 
fire  the  city,  and  assemble  in  front  of  the  palace  of  their 
aga,  or  leader.  We  present  his  picture  among  the  rest.  They 
demand  the  heads  of  the  Grand  Vizier  and  the  Mufti,  who 
favor  reform. 

The  Sultan  hears  of  the  insurrection.  He  hastens  across  the 
Bosporus,  assembles  his  faithful  troops,  invokes  the  religious 
orders,  takes  from  the  mosque  of  Achmed  the  sacred  standard, 
and  summons  the  Mussulmans,  as  if  for  a  holy  war.  The  rebels 
entrench  themselves  at  Etmedam,  near  their  barracks.  The  regu- 
lar troops  occupy  all  the  streets.  Their  cannon  are  so  planted  as 
to  command  the  open  space.  The  Sultan  risks  his  life,  in 
demanding  the  dispersion  of  the  insurgents.  A  brave  officer  pre- 
cipitates the  contest  by  firing  his  pistol  upon  the  priming  of  a 
cannon.  Then  the  artillery  begins  its  sanguinary  thunder.  It  is  not 
an  action;  it  is  a  massacre.  There  is  no  quarter.  The  Janizaries 
seek  to  enter  the  barracks  and  entrench  themselves;  but  the  bar- 
racks are  fired.  Those  who  escape  the  sword,  perish  by  the  fire  ! 
The  bodies  that  are  not  consumed  by  the  fire  are  thrown  into 
the  sea.  There  is  an  inhibition  against  eating  fish  for  some  time 
afterward.  The  rebellion  is  suppressed  and  the  Janizaries  are 
annihilated  ! 

The  traveler  will  notice,  as  he  goes  through  the  various  ceme- 
teries where  the  Janizaries  are  buried,  that  certain  monuments  are 
decapitated;  that  many  carved  turbans  of  marble  are  not  there. 
Vengeance  pursued  them  even  after  death.  The  power  of  the 
state  was  not  weakened  by  the  destruction  of  this  corps.  It  has 
often   been   likened  to  the  destruction   of    the    Mamelukes  by 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


OLD  GUNS  OF  THE  JANIZARIES. 


BENEFICIAL  RESULTS  TO  THE  MOSLEM  POWER. 


95 


Mehemet  Ali  in  i8i  i,  and  such  doubtless  it  was,  both  in  its  horri- 
ble detail,  and  in  its  beneficial  results  to  the  Moslem  power. 
The  Janizaries  had  borne  the  brunt  of  many  a  battle;  in  fact,  of 
most  of  the  battles  that  led  to  the  victorious  advancement  of 
the  Crescent.     They  fell  by  their  ambition  and  insubordination. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SALIENT     FEATURES     IN    OTTOMAN     EMPIRE — FRENCH     INFLUENCE. 

Following  Amurath — who  besieged  Constantinople  a.  d. 
1422,  before  his  successor  captured  it  —  are  many  Sultans 
who  extended  their  conquests  in  Asia  Minor  and  Europe.  Many 
of  these  conquests  remain  until  this  day  as  the  possessions  of 
Turkey.  Macedonia,  Thessaly  and  parts  of  Greece,  as  well  as 
portions  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  indicate  how  high  the  Turkish 
tide  arose  in  those  days  ;  and  a  reconstructed  map  of  Turkey  in 
Europe  to-day  shows  how  far  that  tide  has  subsided. 

Constantinople,  however,  existed  long  under  Greek  dominion, 
notwithstanding  the  weakness  of  its  rulers  and  the  feebleness  of 
its  defense.  It  had  succumbed,  at  the  time  of  the  Fourth  Crusade, 
to  the  Latins — a  most  cruel  conquest,  making  an  execrable 
page  of  human  history.  But  anterior  to  the  fall  of  Constantinople 
before  the  Turkish  arms,  a  second  Tartar  wave  under  Timour 
swept  over  the  same  ground  marked  out  by  his  Tartar  predeces- 
sor. The  Ottoman  Sultan,  Bajazet,  at  the  battle  of  Angora  fell 
before  this  Tartar  inroad.  The  schemes  of  Timour  were 
too  great  for  his  execution.  He  thought  to  conquer  the  world, 
but  in  retiring  backward  upon  China  he  was  killed,  and  his  con- 
quests were  dissolved  by  his  death. 

One  of  the  singular  incidents  of  the  war  of  1877-78  in  the 
Balkans,  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  is  the  fact  that  a  major- 
general  in  the  Czar's  suite  was  none  other  than  Genghis  Khan,  a 
descendant  of  the  famous  conqueror,  Genghis  Khan,  the  "  Scourge 
of  God."  He  is  described  by  an  American  pen  as  a  great, 
burly,  good-natured  soldier,  with  high  cheek-bones  and  black  hair 
and  beard,  the  perfect  type  of  a  Tartar,  as  depicted  in  any  child's 
geography.  Thus  the  fourteenth  century  and  its  Scourge  is 
reproduced  upon  the  olden  plains  of  Thrace. 

After  the  death  of  the  Asiatic  conquerer,  Timour,  there 
was  nothing  to  stop  the  Turk  from  making  sure  of  his  conquests 
in  Europe,    or  gaining  the  much -coveted  capital  of  the   three 

96 


TURKOMAM  CONQUESTS.  97 

seas  and  two  continents  near  the  shores  of  the  Bosporus.  But 
the  Byzantine  rule  was  not  yet  to  succumb,  although  it  was 
honey-combed  with  corruption  and  only  defended  by  mercenaries. 

The  Timour  and  Tamerlane  Tartars,  who  overran  the  world, 
were  of  the  same  race  as  the  Turk,  but  not  of  the  same  moral 
quality  The  Turk,  when  he  accepted  the  Arab  civilization 
along  with  the  Koran,  accepted  the  best  refinement  and  exaltation 
of  each.  It  is  said  that  Genghis  Khan  slew  between  five  and 
six  millions  of  the  human  race.  Empires  built  upon  education 
and  advancement  fell  before  him.  How  proud  these  Tartars 
were,  to  be  accounted  the  "  Scourges  of  God  "  !  They  were 
indeed  the  irony  of  Nature;  for  where  their  standard  was  raised, 
no  grass  ever  grew  again.  At  least,  that  was  their  boast.  Not  so 
with  the  Turks. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  the  Turkish  race  had  its  origin 
in  the  fastnesses  of  a  gold  mountain  range.  Out  of  this  range 
came  these  Scourges.  It  is  not  so  celebrated  in  geography  as  the 
Alps,  Himalayas,  or  the  Rockies  of  America.  The  invading 
Turkomans  adopted  a  creed  which  had  hardly  been  consolidated 
or  understood  among  those  who  adhered  to  it.  They  became 
inspired  with  a  fanaticism  which  intensified  their  native  courage. 
Out  of  their  emergencies  came  a  progress  unequalled  in  the 
romances  on  our  star.  No  such  stories  have  ever  been  told  in 
the  life  of  any  other  nation. 

Behold  this  horde  of  nomads  on  their  first  emerging  from  the 
Asiatic  mountains  !  After  many  wanderings  and  fightings,  they 
make  conquest  of  the  richest  provinces  of  Asia.  They  overthrow 
the  Byzantine  empire,  displace  the  Christians  in  the  very  land 
where  Christ  was  born,  and,  crossing  continental  waterways,  seize 
upon  the  fruitful  lands  between  the  historic  seas  of  ancient  Greece. 
Almost  by  a  single  dash,  unequalled  in  the  campaigns  of  Caesar, 
or  even  Alexander,  and  with  the  aid  of  new  inventions  in 
gunnery — inventions  of  their  own  Tartar  race — they  command  a 
proud  position  in  the  family  of  nations. 

At  the  time  of  the  accession  of  Suleiman  the  Magnificent,  in 
1520,  the  Ottoman  power  was  most  dominant.  The  Turks 
then  held  all  the  Slavic  country  as  far  as  the  capital  of  Hungary. 
They  held  many  tributary  states  along  the  Danube.  They  held 
the  Crimea  and  the  shores  of  the  sea  of  Azof,  almost  com- 
pletmg    the    circuit  of  the  Euxine.     Fifty   millions   of    people 


o8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


^.=  •iiiiiJ"'<i; 


jrtVf^i  ANA      HIS   REST    BELOVED  WIFE. 


THE  MAGNIFICENT  SULTAN  AND  HIS  WIFE. 


99 


regarded  the  Sultan  as  their  sovereign.  He  received  tribute  from 
the  House  of  Hapsburg.  His  fleets,  under  Barbarossa,  controlled 
the  Mediterranean.  Turkey  was  then  not  only  a  great  Power, 
but  the  first  among  the  Powers  of  Europe. 

Roxolana  was  the  wife  of  Suleiman  the  Magnificent.  She  is 
•supposed  to  be  of  French  descent,  but  was  really  a  Russian 
slave.  The  magnificent  Sultan  made  her  Khorum- Sultana.  He 
thus  legitimated  her  and  her  son.  She  was  a  seductive  and 
accomplished  woman,  and  for  nearly  a  score  of  years  shared 
with  Suleiman  the  throne.  What  her  character  was,  how  wicked 
she  was,  and  how  she  strove  for  her  own  son,  to  perpetuate  her 
-own  blood  upon  the  throne  of  Islam,  is  well  recorded  in  con- 
temporaneous history. 

It  seems  that  the  Sultan,  Suleiman  the  Magnificent,  had  an 
heir  to  the  throne.  Mustapha  was  his  name.  He  was  a  son  by  an 
■earlier  marriage.  Roxolana  was  his  step-mother.  Throughout  her 
reign,  she  conspired  with  others  to  inflame  her  old  husband  to 
•deeds  of  cruelty.  Among  these  deeds  was  the  destruction  of  the 
legitimate  heir,  Mustapha.  It  is  a  long  history,  but  it  is  to  the 
everlasting  degradation  of  the  race  that  the  Emperor  who  had 
^iven  so  much  glory  to  his  reign  should  have  succumbed  to  such 
a  woman — even  though  she  be  described,  in  the  history  of  those 
•days,  as  "  ever  so  fair,  yet  full  of  hateful  thoughts,  most  finely 
masked." 

I  call  attention  to  the  portraits  of  these  personages.  I 
present  Suleiman  in  all  his  magnificence  and  Roxolana  in  all 
her  head-gear.  These  pictures  are  taken  from  an  old  and 
rare  volume,  called  the  History  of  the  Ottomans,  published  in 
London  in  1610,  and  which  was  kindly  presented  to  me  by 
Senator  Wagstaff,  of  New  York,  to  whom  it  descended  as  an 
heir-loom. 

What  events  in  Europe  may  have  helped  this  remarkable  people 
to  a  continuance  of  their  power,  are  not  wholly  recorded  in  the 
pages  of  Gibbon.  In  this  connection  a  chapter  might  be  written 
upon  the  advent  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  whose  Oriental  ambition 
and  invasion  of  Egypt  greatly  changed  the  relations  of  theOsmanli 
to  the  outside  world.  The  situation  of  the  Turkish  capital  had 
also  much  to  do  with  these  events.  The  struggle  for  supremacy 
and  commerce  in  the  East  has  been  going  on  for  many  centuries. 
The  Italians  at  one  time  seemed  to  be  dominant  in  this  regard. 


lOO  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

But  it  is  to  France  that  the  Christian  worid  has  been  in- 
debted for  the  "Capitulations,"  or  treaties  by  which  the  alien 
population  of  the  Ottoman  dominions  have  been  protected 
in  their  rights  of  trading,  residence,  conscience  and  other 
personal  liberties. 

During  the  long  centuries  of  this  struggle  the  French  monarchs 
have  had  varying  emotions  and  policies  about  the  Orient.  Some- 
times they  have  been  chivalric  and  Christian,  and  sometimes  the 
reverse.  When  it  concerned  commerce,  all  the  subterfuges  which 
belong  to  diplomacy  were  resorted  to  by  the  "  grand  monarchs  " 
of  France,  for  their  own  aggrandizement.  Notwithstanding  all 
this,  France  has  been,  and  is,  less  mercenary  in  her  Eastern  rela- 
tions than  any  other  nation.  She  was  early  known  for  her  devo- 
tion to  the  Holy  Places.  She  is  still  the  guardian  of  the  Christian 
subjects  in  the  East,  and  especially  those  of  the  Latin  Church. 
Of  course,  her  guardianship  does  not  include  American  and 
English  Protestantism,  which  in  the  last  fifty  years  has  become 
not  only  an  educator  but  a  power  in  the  East.  In  her  early 
days,  France  led  the  fight  of  Christendom  against  the  Moslem. 
Was  it  the  elder  Disraeli  who  spoke  of  the  events  of  history  which 
did  not  happen,  by  which  the  whole  course  of  empire  might  have 
been  changed  ?  So  a  like  condition  in  the  East  might  have  changed 
empires  and  creeds.  It  is  said  that  Charlemagne  was  anxious  to 
wed  the  Empress  Irene,  who,  after  her  dethronement,  made  the 
island  of  Prinkipo,  her  first  home  in  exile.  Charlemagne  was 
willing  to  overlook  her  infamies,  in  order  to  reunite  the  Latin  and 
Greek  races  and  churches  under  one  empire  and  head,  and  thus  to 
rescue  Christianity  audits  Holy  Land  and  places  from  the  follow- 
ers of  Mahomet.  Irene  lost  her  throne,  and  the  great  Charles 
did  not  win  his  bride.  The  result  is  known.  If  the  marriage 
had   been  solemnized,  what  then  ? 

When  Napoleon  thought  to  strike  the  world  by  some  grand 
military  effort,  he  marched  on  the  East.  There  he  dealt  the  blow. 
His  Minister  at  the  court  of  the  Sultan  at  the  summit  of  his 
greatness  and  f)ower,  when  France  antagonized  Russia,  was  a 
Corsican,  General  Sebastiani.  It  may  be  pardoned  to  one  who 
has  voyaged  somewhat  around  the  world,  and  visited  the  island  of 
Corsica,  if  I  state  that  in  1868,  while  at  Ajaccio,  the  birthplace  of 
Napoleon,  I  naturally  sought  for  all  the  local  mementoes  belong- 
ing to  that  hero;  but  I  did  not  dream  of  seeing  there  Napoleon's 


SEBASTIANI  AND  HIS  DIPLOMACY.  lOI 

great  general  who  had  ravaged  Spain,  and  so  ably  represented 
him   at  Constantinople. 

One  day,  while  wandering  about  the  suburbs  of  Ajaccio,  I 
was  directed  to  a  cave  where  it  was  said  Napoleon  had  studied 
geometry.  In  going  thither,  I  passed  through  a  lemon-orchard.  It 
was  the  very  garden  which  Napoleon  had  planted.  Whom  should 
I  see  in  the  garden  but  a  tall,  military-looking  old  gentleman  of 
some  ninety  years  of  age.  He  was  bowed  by  years.  He  was 
walking  slowly  under  a  yellow  umbrella.  The  guide  pointed  him 
out  as  that  illustrious,  daring  and  obstinate  illustration  of 
Corsican  character.  General  Sebastiani. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century,  or,  rather,  before  Napoleon 
became  a  great  power,  Sebastiani  was  selected  by  him  for  the 
mission  to  Constantinople.  At  that  time  the  contest  for  suprem- 
acy was  between  France  and  Russia;  England  then,  as  now,  taking 
a  prominent  hand.  Sebastiani  was  a  true  Corsican.  He  had  rare 
strength  of  mind.  He  made  himself  the  controller  of  the  des- 
tinies of  Turkey,  as  it  seemed  then,  according  to  the  Napoleonic 
idea.  He  was  the  strategist  of  those  movements  by  which  the 
Orient  was  rescued  from  Russia,  and  by  which  France — unlike 
her  present  subordinate  relation  of  neutral  or  ally  of  Russia — 
became  for  the  time  paramount.  He  it  was  who  had  the 
Bosporus  closed  to  Russian  ships.  He  it  was  who  gave  the 
prestige  to  the  French  army  in  Dalmatia,  which  enabled  it  to 
maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  empire.  He  it  was  who 
ruled  Selim  III.  with  as  much  power  as  the  Grand  Vizier  himself. 
He  it  was  who  dictated  those  policies  upon  the  Danube,  which  have 
become  traditional,  and  which  so  long  preserved  its  principalities 
to  the  Turkish  rule.  It  was  this  same  Sebastiani  whom,  after 
three  score  years,  I  saw  as  an  old  man,  under  a  yellow  umbrella, 
watching  his  oranges  and  lemons,  at  the  very  spot  where  the  young 
Napoleon  used  to  play  in  Corsica.  What  memories  could  he  not 
have  divulged  as  to  those  early  struggles  in  the  Orient  in  which 
he  was  chief  actor!  In  1808,  however,  he  was  compelled  to  make 
a  precipitate  retreat  from  Turkey.  In  his  hurry  he  destroyed  his 
instructions,  his  correspondence,  and  other  papers  of  importance. 
By  some  mistake  he  burned  his  own  marriage  contract. 
Madame  Sebastiani,  then  expecting  her  accouchement,  was  unable 
to  retreat  with  him  from  the  Bosporus.  She  was  protected  by 
the  Austrian  Minister  under  most  romantic  circumstances. 


I02  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

How  far  the  policy  of  Napoleon,  which  originated  in  the  brain 
of  his  wily  Corsican  confederate  Sebastiani,  influenced  the  compli- 
cations of  the  Eastern  question  may  never  be  known.  Strange 
as  It  may  appear,  PYance,  during  part  of  this  time  at  least,  was  an 
ally, though  a  secret  one,  of  Russia — as  she  is  to-day.  The  alliance 
was  then  directed  against  the  Porte.  It  transpired  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  its  rulers.  I  refer  to  the  treaty  of  Tilsit,  by  which  all 
the  provinces  of  the  Ottoman  empire  in  Europe — Constantinople, 
and  Roumelia  alone  excepted — were,  in  the  language  of  that  day, 
to  be  "withdrawn  from  the  yoke  and  vexations  of  the  Turks." 
The  correspondence  of  Napoleon  with  Sebastiani  revealed  the 
fact  that  a  partition  of  Turkey  was  then  agreed  upon,  which 
would  give  to  France,  Bosnia,  Albania,  Epirus,  Greece,  Thessaly 
and  Macedonia;  to  Austria,  Servia;  and  to  Russia,  Wallachia,. 
Moldavia,  Bulgaria  and  a  pcirt  of  Thrace.  The  little  remnant  of 
Turkey  in  Europe  would  have  been  almost  as  meagre  as  that 
possessed  by  the  Greeks  when  their  empire  fell  before  Mahomed 
the  Second  in  1453.  What  a  high-handed  example  this  treaty 
affords  to  the  landless — who  are  not  kings  or  emperors  ! 

It  has  frequently  occurred  to  me  that  I  missed  an  opportunity 
in  Corsica  when  I  saw  this  tall  and  grand  old  diplomat  and  soldier. 
Had  I  imagined  that  I  should  ever  sojourn  near  the  Sultan  in  the 
city  in  which  he — Sebastiani — exercised  his  early  diplomatic 
acumen,  I  certainly  would  have  taken  some  risk,  if  not  pains,  to 
draw  from  him  the  incidents  of  his  Eastern  career.  Since  his  day^ 
or,  rather,  since  the  day  of  the  great  Napoleon,  French  power 
has  waned  in  the  Orient,  so  that  France  may  now  be  consid- 
ered a  secondary  influence  at  the  court  where  she  once  held  the 
primacy. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   LAST    FOUR   SULTANS — INCIDENTS   OF    THEIR   REIGN. 

Since  the  Conquest  there  have  been  twenty-eight  Sultans,  in- 
cluding Mahomed  the  Second,  the  Conqueror,  who  died  in  1481, 
and  the  present  Sultan,  Abdul  Hamid,  who  was  crowned  in  1876. 
These  remarkable  men  —  the  Mahomeds,  Bajazids,  Selims, 
Suleimans,  Osmans,  Murads  and  Abdul  Medjids — form  a  direct 
line  of  sovereign  descent  from  conquering  stock,  and  are 
unequalled  in  history  for  the  genius  of  their  statesmanship  and 
the  valor  of  their  armies. 

As  the  Turks  move  to  their  conquests  from  Asia  to  Europe, 
they  find  the  land  which  they  subdue  peopled  with  numerous 
races  of  different  religions,  customs  and  interests — Armenians, 
Kurds,  Druses,  Maronites,  Arabs,  Jews,  Wallachians,  Gypsies — 
all  in  intrigue  one  against  the  other,  and  all  clamoring  to  be 
recognized  as  superior  in  the  curriculum  of  political  life  and 
domination. 

Some  historian  says  that  if  we  would  have  a  proper  idea  of  the 
difificulties  of  government  in  Turkey,  we  should  consider  what 
the  British  House  of  Commons  would  have  to  do  if  it  were  called 
upon  to  legislate  for  nineteen  Irelands  instead  of  one.  And  yet 
this  Seljukian  nomad  from  the  interior  of  Asia,  by  his  forbear- 
ance, genius,  skill  and  equability,  brought  under  discipline  and 
control  all  the  various  phases  of  human  nature  which  are  illus- 
trated within  Turkish  borders,  and  gave  peace,  protection  and 
prosperity  to  all.  The  rule  was  continued  by  energy,  decision, 
toleration,  justice  and  chivalry. 

This  historian  is  somewhat  at  fault  in  his  illustration.  The 
Turk  did  legislate  for  and  not  against  his  subjects,  of  whatever 
race  or  creed.  From  the  first  it  was,  and  is  to-day,  Turkish 
policy  to  give  Home  Rule  its  largest  and  best  operation  ;  and  to 
sacrifice  no  section  of  its  subject-races  for  the  betterment  of  any 
other  race  under  its  sway.  It  will  strike  the  impartial  reader  that 
the  British  House  of  Commons  might,  even  at  this  late  day,  learn 

t03 


I04  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

something  of  the  true  principles  of  legislation  from  Turkish 
municipal  policy. 

The  grandfather  of  the  present  Sultan,  Mahmoud  II.,  knew 
that  he  had  alien  hostility,  worse  than  domestic  broils,  to  over- 
come. This  hostility  was  fomented,  if  not  created,  principally 
by  one  of  the  European  powers.  Hence  he  never  could  institute 
stable  government  for  Turkey  while  the  Janizaries  existed. 
Although  they  were  forty  thousand  in  number,  he  wiped  them 
out  in  a  single  day  !  Their  horrible  deeds  no  longer  became 
the  reproach  of  Turkey.  Their  destruction  was  the  decapitation 
of  forty  thousand  murderers  at  one  stroke  of  the  royal  cimeter. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  new  Turkey.  The  Janizaries  were 
not,  however,  the  only  menace  to  the  power  of  the  Ottoman 
Sultans.  Mahmoud  the  Second  was  almost  overthrown  by  one 
of  his  own  subjects — the  great  Viceroy  of  Egypt.  Under 
Mehemet  Ali,  and  by  the  aid  of  his  grand  captain,  Ibrahim 
Pasha  and  a  skillful  Frenchman,  known  afterwards  as  Suleiman 
Pasha,  the  Egyptian  armies  became  masters  of  the  Holy  Land 
and  of  Syria.  In  1832  Ibrahim,  with  an  army  of  thirty  thousand 
men,  defeated  sixty  thousand  of  the  Sultan's  Turks  at  Koniah. 
Ibrahim  was  moving  on  Constantinople,  when  his  march  was 
stopped  by  the  interference  of  European  diplomacy.  The  Porte 
did  not  recover  Syria  by  military  force,  although  it  made  efforts 
in  that  direction  as  late  as  June  24,  1839.  The  Great  Powers 
had  to  combine  to  restore  the  wasted  provinces  of  Syria  to  the 
Porte.  A  fleet  menaced  the  shores  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  finally 
Ibrahim  evacuated  Syria  and  retired  to  Egypt.  After  this  he 
made  a  grand  tour  of  Europe,  and  was  recognized  as  late  as 
1846-47-48  as  a  man  almost  as  remarkable  as  Mehemet  Ali. 

Out  of  the  conflict  between  Turkey  and  Egypt,  and  the  stress 
put  upon  the  former  by  ihe  Powers,  came  the  reforms,  which  have 
been  failures  only  in  the  eye  of  those  who  expected  more  than 
was  possible 

Many  reforms  upon  the  Turkish  body,  both  politic  and  social, 
have  been  started  within  the  last  four  decades.  It  is  hard  to  tell  just 
when  they  began.  Was  it  when  the  Sultan  Mahmoud  II.  began 
to  circulate  portraits  of  himself,  to  foster  music,  and  to  establish 
military  bands  of  his  own  outside  the  Janizary  corps  ?  A  represent- 
ation of  the  human  form  and  the  use  of  music  were  forbidden  by 
the  Koran,  and  the  Janizary  had  become  quite  a  permanent  order. 


REFORMS  IN  TURKEY. 


^05 


Since  the  time  of  Mahmoud  the  Second  there  has  been  no  more 
drowning  in  sacks  of  wives  and  odalisques,  no  decapitation  of 
officials,  and  no  strangulation  of  deposed  Sultans  or  of  the 
brothers  of  reigning  Sultans.  With  the  death  of  Mahmoud,  such 
cruelties — which  had  the  sanction  of  legality  in  Greek  and  Roman 
custom — ceased.  Mahmoud  was  a  great  student.  He  studied 
such  material  changes  of  his  country  as  could  be  tolerated.  He 
endeavored  to  better  the  condition  of  the  Christians.  Notwith- 
standing the  conflicts  of  his  time,  and  the  discontent  of  the 
old  Moslem  at  his  innovations,  he  struggled  for  thirty  years  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  his  people  of  all  races  and  creeds, 
until  death  ended  his  splendid  career.  The  present  Sultan  has 
allowed  not  one  human  life  to  be  taken  since  his  accession  to  the 
throne.  Of  what  other  monarch  of  his  time  can  the  like  be 
said  ? 

Abdul  Medjid  was  a  boy  when  he  came  to  the  throne  of 
his  father,  Mahmoud  the  Second,  but  he  did  what  he  could  to 
carry  out  the  reforms  of  his  father.  The  famous  Hatt-i-huma- 
youn,  or  "august  writing,"  announced  a  new  order  as  to  taxa- 
tion and  justice  in  the  empire.  The  Berlin  treaty  of  1878  confirmed 
this  advanced  movement.  Many  monopolies  were  overthrown, 
education  was  elevated  and  energized  ;  and  in  spite  of  all  oppo- 
sition— even  that  of  religious  fanaticism — it  is  due  to  truth  to 
state  that  the  Turkish  Government  met  the  crisis  with  as  much 
firmness  as  was  possible,  in  the  midst  of  such  troubles  and  trials 
as  few  nations  ever  encountered. 

The  Crimean  War  had  closed  with  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1856. 
Neither  the  war  nor  the  treaty  pleased  Russia.  For  neither, 
could  Turkey  be  justly  blamed.  Every  time  that  Russia  struck 
at  Turkey,  Turkey  seemed  weaker  than  before;  but  Turkey  did 
not  and  has  not  succumbed,  although  she  has  copied  some  of 
the  worst  elements  of  European  nations.  What  has  transpired 
in  the  Balkan  Peninsula  since  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  and  what 
reforms  have  taken  place  for  the  good  of  the  country — these  are 
well  summed  up  by  an  English  Consul  when  he  says:  "If  we 
compare  Turkey  as  she  is  with  what  she  was  twenty-five  years 
ago,  the  change  is  marvelous."  Lord  Palmerston  said  in  1856 
that  Turkey  had  made  greater  progress  than  any  other  nation  in 
Europe.  Was  this  because  she  had  a  greater  field  for  reform  ? 
At  all  events,  she  reformed.     The  present  condition  of  Turkey 


I06  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

at  least  proves  that  much.  Ever  since  the  death  of  Abdul 
Med j  id,  in  1861,  and  at  the  present  time — despite  great  expendi 
tures  and  demands  upon  her  exchequer,  and  even  after  the  perils 
following  the  suicide  of  his  brother,  Abdul  Aziz,  and  the  imbe- 
cility of  another  brother,  the  Sultan  Murad,  who  was  deposed 
promptly — there  is  evidence  of  an  anxiety  for  reform,  backed 
with   much  executive  energy. 

Abdul  Medjid  had  a  storm-tossed  administration.  It  lasted 
long.  He  was  among  the  best  of  the  Sultans.  Among  the 
conspicuous  and  illustrious  embodiments  connected  with  his 
reign  of  advanced  thought,  was  the  renewal  of  the  bill  of  right 
and  freedom  of  worship  to  all  equally  with  Mahometans.  Of 
course  this  could  not  be  fully  carried  into  effect  except  at  the 
capital  As  to  other  places,  it  was  a  dead  letter.  He  did  all  that 
was  possible  by  his  government  for  liberality.  There  were 
reforms  in  connection  with  taxation,  so  as  to  defeat  the  cupidity 
of  the  tax-gatherer.  But  restless  Russia  would  not  keep  within 
her  limits.  With  these  evident  signs  of  improvement  in  Turkey  the 
Czar  became  more  aggressive  than  ever.  The  revolution  by  which 
Austria  and  Hungary  were  in  collision — in  fact,  the  cataclysm 
of  Europe  in  1848 — disturbed  somewhat  the  Turkish  realm; 
and  in  1853,  two  years  after  my  first  visit  to  Constantinople,  I 
was  not  too  young  to  observe  that  the  general  peace  of  Europe, 
which  had  remained  undisturbed  since  1815,  was  trembling  before 
a  fresh  disturbance  of  the  Eastern  question.  The  Crimean  War 
grew  out  of  a  wrangle  about  the  Holy  Places.  It  was  a  question 
of  privilege.  The  Greek  Church,  through  Russia,  demanded 
one  thing;  France,  as  the  protector  of  the  Latin  Church,  another. 
Russia  had  some  pretext  for  her  demand,  growing  out  of  an  old 
treaty  of  1774.  The  Turks  were  perplexed.  What  was  Greek 
or  Latin  to  Turkey  ?  Was  she  to  be  a  mere  cat's-paw  to  drag  the 
Christian  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire?  The  matter  came  to  a  head; 
the  Russian  demands  were  denied  ;  war  came.  We  know  the 
result,  for  the  Crimean  struggle  is  not  yet  forgotten.  The 
siege  of  Sebastopol  still  retains  its  pre-eminence  in  the  history  of 
military  strategy  and  engineering  skill. 

Now  we  come  close  to  the  time  when  Abdul  Aziz, 
breaking  loose  from  the  best  thoughts  of  his  early  reign,  fouled 
the  attempts  of  reform.  What  came  to  him  personally  from  his 
resistance  to  the  onward  march  of  events,  is  told  to  every  passen- 


FA  TE  OF  SULTANS  AZIZ  AND  MURAD. 


107 


ger  who  goes  up  and  down  the  Bosporus.  There  is  pointed  out 
a  certain  mark  of  broken  masonry  in  the  palace  of  Tchiragan: 
it  indicates  an  improvised  breach  in  the  wall  where  the  dead  body 
of  the  Sultan  was  carried  out  after  his  suicidal  bath. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  repeat  the  oft-told  tales  which  connect  the 
Sultans,  even  of  our  latter  days,  with  self-indulgence  in  luxurious 
excesses;  nor  do  I  give  heed  to  the  thousand-tongued  rumor  of 
the  taking  off  of  Abdul  Aziz,  or,  as  a  consequence,  of  the 
aberrations  in  the  mind  of  his  brother  Murad.  It  is  said,  how- 
ever, and  related  on  the  authority  of  one  of  his  seraglio,  that, 
just  before  his  death,  the  unfortunate  Sultan,  Abdul  Aziz,  on 
entering  his  prison  in  the  palace,  traced  on  the  dust  that  covered 
the  table  this  verse  in  Arabic  : 

"Man's  destiny  is  Allah's  will, 
Sceptres  and  power  are  His  alone; 
My  fate  is  written  on  my  brow, 
Lowly  I  bend  before  His  throne  ! ' ' 

On  looking  out  of  the  window  of  his  palace,  and  seeing  that 
his  iron-clads  had  been  placed  in  front  of  his  prison,  with  the 
guns  pointed  toward  him,  he, was  appalled  by  the  sight,  and 
exclaimed,  with  emotion,  to  his  mother,  who  was  present:  **  See 
to  what  use  the  force  I  have  created  for  my  empire  is  applied  ! " 

When  Murad  was  approached  by  those  who  had  dethroned 
Abdul  Aziz  he  turned  deathly  pale,  and  exclaimed  :  "  What  is  my 
offense,  that  I  should  be  doomed  to  an  untimely  death  ?"  He  did 
not  then  know  of  the  conspiracy  by  which  he  had  been  elevated. 
He  had  a  short  reign.  He  soon  became  distrait,  for  what  reason 
no  one  knows,  and  few  care  to  know.  It  is  said  that  he  is  still 
confined  in  one  of  the  marble  palaces  upon  the  Bosporus.  His 
feeble  body  and  mind,  aggravated  by  excesses,  led,  as  it  is 
alleged,  to  his  deposition  on  the  last  day  of  August,  a.  d.  1876. 

There  is,  however,  two  sides  to  his  story.  He  owned  a 
fine  estate  on  the  island  of  Prinkipo.  There  he  was  happy. 
There  he  spent  his  summers.  There  he  lived  more  like 
a  private  gentleman  than  a  prince.  In  this  he  was  not 
singular.  The  unpretending  style  of  the  Turkish  gentle- 
man is  quite  in  contrast  with  the  splendor  of  the  royal  palace. 
Murad  visited  his  neighbors,  Christians  and  all.  He  was 
fond   of  music,  and  he   practiced   his  music    with    them.     His 


I08  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY, 


SDT.TAN  ABDUL  MEDJID,  FATHER  OF  THE  PRESENT  SULTAN. 


SULiA.N    AdL-uL   A/i/.,    bROTHER   OF   THE   PKtaENT  bULTAN. 


109 


no 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


manners  were  distinguished  and  affable.  The  condition  of  a 
Sultan  in  prospective  is  worse  than  that  of  the  poorest  hamal. 
Murad  passed  his  time  under  an  espionage  which  was  in  itself  an 
imprisonment,  and  which  gave  him — even  while  enjoying  the 
pleasures  of  the  Princes  Isles — many  unhappy  days.  When  he 
was  fixed  upon  as  the  successor  of  Abdul  Aziz,  he  had  to  change 
this  island  life.  He  could  no  longer  read  his  Dante,  nor  play 
Rossini's  music.  When  he  came  to  the  throne  he  was  utterly 
cut  off  from  his  old  companions. 

The  bloody  incidents  of  that  insurrection  overthrew  Murad's 
reason,  and  before  he  could  be  invested  with  the  sword  of  Osman, 
which  conferred  royalty,  his  mind  was  a  blank.  He  was  removed 
from  power  and  consigned  to  one  corner  of  the  palace  of  Tchi- 
ragan,  which  is  also  pointed  out  to  the  traveler  on  the  Bosporus. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  the  present  Sultan, who  very 
reluctantly  assumed  the  grave  office  which  h^  has  filled  so  well. 
Thus  the  present  Sultan  was  raised  to  the  throne  as  the  thirty- 
fourth  ruler  of  the  house  of  Othman.  His  character  had  not  then 
been  fixed  or  known.  He  strongly  resisted  the  importunities  of 
his  friends  to  place  him  in  such  a  perilous  position,  but  there 
was  no  other  man  possible.  By  the  decrees  of  state  and  the 
order  of  succession,  he,  as  the  next  brother,  became  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Turkish  faith  and  state.  Who  could  better 
represent  his  people,  or  with  more  moderation,  affability,  fidelity 
and  probity  ?     Aye,  or  with  more  humanity  ? 

Properly  to  introduce  Abdul  Hamid  the  Second  upon  the 
later  stage  of  Oriental  affairs,  the  origin  of  the  Ottoman  race  and 
dynasty  should  be  traced — as  I  have  endeavored — to  its  springs 
in  Central  Asia.  Besides,  the  reader  should  consult,  not  merely 
Gibbon,  but  the  history  of  that  remarkable  rule  in  Turkey  which 
has  had  its  vicissitudes  of  order  and  anarchy  from  its  beginning 
up  to  the  present  time.  Its  pages  tell  us  that  when  the  Sultans 
became  apathetic  and  debauched,  the  Janizaries  dominated  over 
all.  Whenever  avarice  and  lust,  often  provoked  and  assisted  by  the 
Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte,  left  their  sinister  mark  upon  the 
empire,  a  foreign  element  came  ever  menacingly  to  the  front. 
That  element  was  inspired  by  the  greed  of  dominion.  It  began 
actively  with  the  reign  of  Peter  the  Great.  It  was  organized  in 
steadfast  intrigue.  It  sought  the  dismemberment  of  Turkey 
with   a   view   to    its   own  aggrandizement.     It    never   failed    to 


DOMINANT  OTTOMAN  QUALITIES.  I  1 1 

obstruct  the  path  of  Turkish  progress.  It  has  attempted  its  work 
in  Bulgaria.  It  has  succeeded  in  northeastern  Turkey  in  Asia. 
It  began  to  exhibit  itself  before  the  Ottoman  occupation  of 
Constantinople,  and  it  is  prosecuted  to  this  very  day  by  the 
accomplished  Russian  Minister,  Nellidoff,  as  the  agent  of  the 
Czar  in  Constantinople.     It  is  the  Muscovite  policy. 

Since  the  accession  of  the  present  Sultan,  it  is  apparent 
that  his  rule  has  permeated  the  empire  with  a  wise  and  honest 
sovereignty.  To-day  he  reigns  triumphant  under  the  old  ban- 
ner of  One  God — and  Mahomet  as  the  Prophet — not  as  some 
irreverent  writer  has  interpreted,  "  One  God — and  Backsheesh 
as  the  Prophet."  This  interpretation  comes  too  close  to 
the  reproach  on  us  for  our  "Almighty  Dollar."  I  there- 
fore reject  it  all  the  more  readily.  I  have  observed, 
heed  fully,  much  of  the  progress  of  Turkey  within  the  last 
three  decades,  and  from  what  I  have  seen  of  it  I  believe  that  the 
Turk  is  to-day  the  only  man  who  can  give  Turkey  the  proper 
impulse  to  overcome  the  vis  inertia  of  her  laggard  progress,  so  as 
to  bring  her  forth  into  the  light  and  liberty  of  a  new  civilization. 
If  you  question  the  ability  of  this  people  for  such  advancement, 
look  for  the  inspiration  of  their  remarkable  race  and  rule,  and 
you  will  find  an  answer  in  those  rare  qualities  which  Gibbon 
catalogued  when  he  said  that  they  were  distinguished  for  their 
patience,  discipline,  sobriety,  bravery,  honesty  and  modesty.  It 
is  because  of  these  solid  characteristics,  and  in  spite  of  the 
harem,  in  spite  of  autocratic  power,  in  spite  of  the  Janizary  and 
seraglio,  that  this  race  and  rule  remain  potential  in  the  Orient. 
It  is  a  good  omen  that  the  head  of  thp  Turkish  Government 
to-day  is  a  man  of  honest  intentions  and  clear  intellect,  and  that 
he  gives  unremittingly  his  time  lo  the  service  of  his  people.  He 
is  not  merely  an  amiable  and  humane  Prince,  but  wisely  versed 
in  statesmanship.  His  heart  is  touched  by  suffering,  and  his 
views  lean  strongly  to  that  toleration  of  the  various  races  and 
religions  of  his  realm,  which  other  and  more  boastful  nations 
would  do  well  to  imitate. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  LATIN  CONQUEST  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


MAP  OF    CONSTANTINOPLE   AT   THE   CONQUEST. 


It  is  impossible  to  recapitulate  or  picture  all  the  strange 
vicissitudes  through  which  the  capital  of  the  Oriental  empire 
has  passed.  How  often  it  has  been  besieged — how  it  was  held 
by  Greece,  Rome  and  Persia — how  it  was  attacked  by  Arabs, 
who  were  driven  back  by  the  strength  of  its  walls  and  the  chem- 
istry of  the  Greek  fire — how  again  and  again  the  Moslem  forces 
undertook  its  siege — how  the  great  Slavonic  power,  Russia,  in 
the  ninth,  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  attempted  to  make  this 
its  objective  point  and  centre  of  operations.  All  this  would 
require  volumes.  The  scope  is  too  large  for  the  **  Diversions  "  to 
which  this  book  is  devoted.  It  might  be  a  matter  of  interest,  how- 
ever, to  consider,  in  passing,  the  graphic  and  wonderful  conquest 
of  the  city  under  Baldwin  of  Flanders,  and  Dandolo,  the  aged 
Doge  of  Venice,  in  a.  d.,  1203-04.  It  was  Dandolo's  remarkable 
power  which  set  up  the  house  of  Flanders  in  the  palace  of  the 


CRUSADING  A  TTA CKS.  I  1 3 

Comneni.     The  Greeks  recovered  their  capital  in  a.  d.   1261. 
After  that  the  second  Amurath  besieged  it.     But  it  was  not  until 
A.  D.  1453  that  Mahomet  the  Second  made  good  the  prophesies, 
of  the  Prophet,  by  capturing  the  city. 

A  city  like  Constantinople,  which  has  been  besieged  twenty- 
four  times  and  taken  six  times,  must  have  a  history  worth  repeat- 
ing, even  though  it  be  in  a  meagre  way. 

The  country  around  the  capital  is  instinct  with  thrilling  mem- 
ories: every  mountain  and  valley,  and,  but  for  its  mobility,  every 
drop  of  water,  has  its  history.  The  great  strength  of  the  city  was 
not  in  the  Divine  Wisdom,  after  which  its  principal  church  was 
named,  but  in  the  walls  which,  shortly  after  the  Christian  era,  were 
built  to  strengthen  it  against  invasion.  The  invasion  did  not 
always  come  from  the  Turk  when  the  Greek  held  the  city.  And 
when  the  Christian  manned  her  walls,  the  Crusader  was  sometimes 
the  invader.     So  it  was  at  the  Latin  Conquest. 

In  the  Month  of  May,  1097,  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  with  an 
army  of  some  three  hundred  thousand  men,  having  the  Holy 
Land  for  its  objective  point,  came  crusading  in  this  direction. 
His  army  was  composed  of  a  different  class  of  men,  and  under  con- 
ditions quite  unlike  those  of  the  first  Crusade  that  followed  wildly 
Peter  the  Hermit.  The  Crusaders  under  Godfrey,  when  they 
encamped,  to  resist  the  attacks  of  the  enemy,  made  breastworks 
out  of  the  innumerable  bones  of  the  Crusaders  who  had  preceded 
them.  What  a  sacrilegious  horde  these  later  Crusaders  must  have 
been,  to  make  such  a  resurrection  of  the  Paladins  ! 

The  first  fall  of  Constantinople  must  not  be  confounded  with 
that  of  the  Turkish  capture  of  the  city.  The  first  fall  was  in  1203. 
It  occurred  at  a  time  when  Innocent  III.  was  the  Pope  of  Rome, 
when  the  Fourth  Crusade  was  under  way,  and  when  the  greatest  of 
the  Venetian  Doges,  Henrico  Dyndolo,  wielded  the  trident  in  the 
eastern  Mediterranean.  The  history  of  the  expedition  has  been 
well  written,  for  there  is  abundant  material.  The  crusade  left 
Corfu  on  the  23d  of  May.  Along  with  it  was  youn^  Alexis,  who 
aspired  to  be  emperor  of  the  Greeks.  Why  it  was  deflected 
from  Egypt  is  a  part  of  the  mystery  of  its  attack  on  Constanti- 
nople. The  wily  Venetian,  Dandolo,  had  been  paid  to  leave 
Egypt  alone.  Besides,  he  had  the  animus  of  an  old  grudge  against 
Constantinople.  Had  he  not  been  blinded  by  its  emperor  ?  Al- 
though ninety  odd  years  of  age,  he  was  following  his  Nemesis. 


114  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

The  imperial  journey  of  young  Alexis  was  that  of  a 
conquering  hero.  On  the  23d  of  June  the  fleet  anchored  off 
San  Stefano,  which  is  on  the  European  side  of  the  Sea  of 
Marmora,  some  twelve  miles  southwest  of  Constantinople.  The 
sight  of  the  city  was  an  incentive  to  the  Crusaders.  Its  walls  and 
towers,  its  palaces  and  churches,  made  the  enterprise  a  magnifi- 
cent romance.  Dandolo  was  the  genius  of  the  undertaking. 
Leaving  San  Stefano,  the  fleet  harbored  at  the  Princes  Islands. 
These  islands  may  become  familiar  to  the  reader  from  my 
account  of  a  summers  residence  ■  on  Prinkipo,  the  chief 
isle  of  the  group.*  From  these  islands  it  was  but  a  few  hours'  sail 
for  the  fleet  into  the  Bosporus.  The  traveler  will  observe  upon 
the  Asiatic  side  of  the  shore,  off  Chalcedon,  a  cemetery  crowded 
with  monuments,  in  strange  contrast  to  the  Turkish  cemeteries 
around,  with  their  cypresses  and  turbaned  tombs.  It  is  only  a 
mile  from  Constantinople,  and  here  the  army  disembarked. 
Here  they  gathered  in  the  crops  which  had  just  been  harvested. 
It  was  but  a  short  move  from  Chalcedon  to  Scutari.  Scutari  is 
well  known  to  the  American  colony,  for  upon  its  heights  is  situ- 
ated the  most  interesting  school  under  American  auspices  in  the 
Orient.  Nine  days  the  Crusaders  waited,  with  an  occasional 
skirmish  to  whet  their  appetites  for  plunder.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
picture  the  consternation  of  the  city,  the  negotiations  which  were 
begun,  and  the  suspicions  that  were  engendered. 

The  walls  of  Constantinople  remain  to-day  as  they  were  then. 
They  form  a  triangle.  Two  sides  of  the  triangle  bring  them  down 
to  the  water's  edge.  The  waters  are  deep  enough  to  float  the  iron- 
clads of  the  Turks,  as  they  then  floated  the  galleys  of  the  Venetians. 
A  display  was  made  upon  the  galleys,  by  the  barons  and  knights, 
with  Dandolo  at  their  head,  of  the  person  of  the  young  pretender 
to  the  throne.  Proclamation  was  at  the  same  time  made 
before  the  crowds  upon  the  walls,  from  the  galleys  of  the  Vene- 
tians, of  his  right  to  the  heirship.  The  Greeks  who  garrisoned 
the  walls  laughed  at  the  proclamation.  Then  the  business  of  the 
siege  began.  It  was  inspired  by  the  rich  booty  in  prospect. 
Religious  services  alternated  with  military  display.  At  the  end 
of  ten  days  an  attack  was  made  upon  the  walls.  The  tourist  will 
observe,   upon  the    heights  of    the  European  side   of  the  Bos- 

*  "Isles  of  the  Princes  ;  or,  the  Pleasures  of  Prinkipo."  By  S.  S.  Cox. 
Putnam's  Sons.     New  York,  1887. 


ORDER  OF  BA  TTLE.  1 1 5 

porus  a  conspicuous  Genoese  tower,  upon  which  the  Turkish  flag 
flies  every  fete  day  and  every  Turkish  Sabbath — Friday.  It  is 
known  as  the  tower  of  Galata.  It  confronts  the  old  city  of 
Stamboul.  Two  bridges  of  boats  now  connect  Galata  with  Stam- 
boul.  It  was  under  the  shadow  of  this  tower,  at  the  point  known 
as  Tophane,  now  used  as  a  Custom  house,  where  the  troops 
landed.  It  is  near  the  mouth  of  the  Golden  Horn.  It  is  now  a 
large  open  space,  which  at  the  present  time,  or  at  least  when  the 
writer  left  Constantinople,  is  crowded  with  many  of  the  arma- 
ments which  the  genius  of  modern  invention  has  produced.  At  the 
time  of  the  siege  there  was  a  chain  boom  across  the  Golden  Horn 
from  Galata  to  Stamboul.  It  was  protected  by  the  tower  of 
Galata  Behind,  the  hills  slope,  and  upon  this  slope  lived  the 
Hebrews  of  the  city.  It  is  still  the  most  thickly  populated  por- 
tion of  the  European  part  of  the  great  city — known  as  Pera. 
How  to  possess  the  tower  of  Galata,  in  order  to  reach  the  Euro- 
pean end  of  the  chain,  is  the  question.  The  castle  is  captured. 
The  chain  is  now  in  the  control  of  the  invaders.  The  fleet 
■enters  the  Golden  Horn.  Victory  ensues  upon  the  sea  against 
the  Grecian  galleys. 

Here  then  is  the  scene  and  the  order  of  battle:  The  attack 
is  to  be  made  by  sea  as  well  as  by  land.  The  ships  are  to  be 
brought  close  up  to  the  wall  on  the  north  side  of  the  city.  Lad- 
ders are  to  be  thrown  out  from  the  ships  to  the  walls,  on  the 
part  of  the  navy,  manned  by  the  Venetians,  while  the  Crusaders 
are  to  attack  on  the  west  side  through  the  landward  walls.  A 
bridge  has  to  be  made  across  the  Golden  Horn,  or  an  old  bridge 
of  stone  repaired.  On  the  5th  day  after  the  capture  of  the 
harbor  the  army  of  the  Crusaders  is  in  position  near  the  Golden 
Horn,  and  almost  opposite  the  Imperial  Palace  of  Blachern.  From 
the  camp  of  the  Greeks  there  is  a  splendid  prospect.  All  the 
waters  which  make  Constantinople  the  capital  of  commerce 
in  the  Orient  are  within  view.  St.  Sophia  towers  above  all. 
There  are  triple  walls  to  guard  the  city.  Machines  are  ready  to 
hurl  the  vast  round  stones,  that  are  still  seen  piled  up  upon  the 
■quays  of  Constantinople — relics  of  the  siege.  This  camping-place 
is  historic.  Hosts  of  Moslems  had  before  attacked  the  city 
from  this  point.  Travelers  who  have  visited  the  mosque  of  Job, 
■or  Eyoub,  have  no  difficulty  in  locating  the  place. 

The  attack  is  made  with  varying  success,  but  it  fails  on  the 


I  l6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

landward  side.  On  the  northern  side  it  is  more  successfuL 
Dandolo,  then  nearly  a  hundred  years  old,  and  blind,  directs  the 
attack  from  his  own  galley.  The  Greek  fire  is  at  this  time  the 
most  conspicuous  element  of  warfare  in  the  East.  Dandolo  has 
anticipated  the  day  of  iron-clads:  his  ships  are  shielded  with  raw- 
hides to  resist  this  fire.  From  the  cross-trees  of  the  ships  to  the 
walls  is  the  order  of  battle,  as  the  vessels  are  moored  close  to  the 
shore.  In  spite  of  the  stones  which  are  thrown  m  immense  quanti- 
ties, and  reckless  of  the  cross-bows  of  the  besieged,  the  fight  is 
hand  to  hand  on  the  scaling-ladders  thrown  out  from  the  ships'  tops 
to  the  walls.  The  Gonfalon  of  St.  Mark  is  borne  on  shore  by 
the  old  Doge,  who  leads  his  followers  into  the  conflict.  At  last 
the  Gonfalon  is  seen  floating  from  one  of  the  towers  of  the  walls. 
Twenty-five  of  these  towers  are  captured  in  succession.  In  vain 
the  Greeks  try  to  rally.  Even  the  mercenaries,  or  auxiliaries, 
made  up  of  the  hired  Norsemen  and  Englishmen,  and  Warings 
and  Pisans,  endeavor  in  vain  to  recapture  the  towers. 

The  result  of  this  fighting  is  a  great  conflagration  in  the  city, 
and  the  repulsion  of  the  invaders.  It  is  not  necessary  to  recount 
in  detail  the  consequences  of  this  attack:  how  the  Emperor  Alexis 
fled;  how  the  aged  Isaac  was  restored  to  the  palace;  how  a 
revolution  broke  out  in  the  city;  what  resulted  from  a  deputation 
of  the  invaders  who  entered  the  city;  what  differences  broke  out 
within  the  army  of  invasion  ;  the  intrigues  which  were  incident 
to  the  rule  of  the  city;  the  terrific  fire  which  broke  out  a  second 
time  ;  in  fine,  the  confusion,  dissensions  and  anxieties  on  both 
sides  and  in  both  armies,  which  resulted  in  the  deposition  of 
the  old  and  the  proclamation  of  a  new  emperor.  These  facts 
form  chapters  in  this  magnificent  romance. 

Even  before  the  fall  of  the  city  there  were  many  divisions 
made,  in  anticipation  of  the  spoils  and  the  Government.  As  Mr. 
Pears,  in  his  History,  says  :  "  The  bear-skin  having  been  thus 
divided,  it  only  remained  to  capture  the  bear."  The  Crusade 
had  been  forgotten.  The  lust  of  plunder  and  of  power  alone 
inspired  the  invading  host. 

No  one  at  this  day,  when  munitions  of  war  can  be  improvised; 
so  readily,  can  realize  the  genius  and  industry  which  prepared 
the  machines  for  hurling  stones,  the  battering-rams,  the  ballista,. 
the  mangonels  and  the  enginery  for  war  of  that  time.  The  prepara- 
tions were  completed  by  the  8th  of  April,  a.  d.  1 203,  for  another  as- 


DANDOLO,   DOGE  OF  VENICE. 
117 


I  1 8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

sault.  One  line  of  battle  was  formed  upon  land.  That  line  stretched 
from  the  Blachern  P.alace,  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the  wall,  ta 
the  Petrion.  The  Petrion  I  am  familiar  with.  It  is  a  very 
unwholesome  quarter  of  the  city.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  pass 
through  it  now,  for  its  stench  and  filth.  It  runs  parallel  with  the 
Golden  Horn  for  about  one-third  of  the  length  of  the  harbor 
walls,  eastward  from  Blachern. 

The  attack  was  made,  as  before,  by  the  navy  from  the  cross- 
trees  of  the  ships  to  the  walls.  The  walls  meanwhile  had  been 
heightened.  The  feat  of  conquest  had  thus  been  made  more 
difficult.     The  assault  again  failed. 

Another  assault  is  made.    A  tremendous  fire  rages  throughout 
the  city.     At  length  the  city  is  entered  through  one  of  the  gates 
upon   the  land  side,  after  the  Venetians  obtain  a  foothold  in  the  ' 
towers.     It  is  late  in  the  evening  when  the  Crusaders  enter  the 
city. 

Then  begins  the  carnival  of  plunder.  Never  was  there  such  a. 
systematic,  shameless  and  terrible  sacking.  These  soldiers  of 
Christ,  as  the  historian  says — sworn  to  chastity,  pledged  before 
God  not  to  shed  Christian  blood,  bearing  upon  their  own  breasts 
the  emblem  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  under  vows  to  redeem  the 
tomb  of  Christ  from  the  Moslem,  bring  down  upon  themselves- 
the  reprobation  of  the  great  and  good  Pope  and  the  indignation 
of  the  world  for  their  brutality.  Such  scandalous  orgies  and 
barbaric  cruelties,  such  sacrilegious  robberies  of  churches,  palaces 
and  homes,  had  never  before  been  equalled  in  the  history  of 
mankind.  The  plunder  by  Mahomed,  with  his  Turks,  in  a.  d. 
1453,  is  a  summer-holiday  excursion  compared  with  this  Christian 
capture  and  sacking.  Nothing  is  spared — neither  the  works  of 
art,  nor  the  sacred  vestment?,  images  or  vessels  of  the  churches.. 
Exclusive  of  what  was  stolen  and  what  was  paid  to  the  Venetians, 
money  to  the  value  of  eight  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling, 
was  distributed  among  the  army.  It  was  the  richest  prize  of  all 
the  ages.  Sismondi  estimates  the  wealth  of  the  city — in  specie 
and  property — before  the  capture,  at  twenty-four  millions  of 
pounds  sterling. 

Such  a  capture  could  not  fail  to  result  in  quarrels  among  the 
captors.  For  generations  after  this,  the  Latin  Conquest  continued 
to  be  a  byword  and  a  reproach.  Like  the  conquests  of  Alex- 
ander, when  they  fell    under  the  control  of  his   generals,  they 


DANDOLO'S  DEATH. 


119 


faded   away,  because   of   the   lack   of   that   skill   in   governing 
which  alone  can  make  domination  lasting, 

Dandolo,  the  genius  of  the  Conquest,  died  a.  d.  1208.  I  have 
seen  the  stone  in  St.  Sophia  which  marks  his  sepulchre,  or  which 
did  mark  it,  for  the  stone  is  a  part  of  the  pavement  in  the  women's 
gallery  of  the  great  Church  of  St.  Chrysostom.  It  is  worn  and 
dusty.  It  was  by  an  accident  that  I  happen  to  see  it.  Our 
dragoman,  Mr.  Garguilo,  who  is  of  Italian  descent,  was  along 
with  me,  on  a  summer  evening — as  we  are  wandering  through 
the  upper  corridors  of  the  Church  of  the  Divine  Wisdom — when 
I  observe  some  dim  letters  on  the  pave  beneath  my  feet.  At 
once  I  am  on  my  knees  dusting  the  stone  with  a  handkerchief. 
I  read  :  Dando —  !  This,  and  nothing  more.  Where  is  his 
body  ?     The  dragoman  promises  to  investigate  the  problem. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

CAPTURE   OF   CONSTANTINOPLE    BY    THE   TURKS. 

What  wonderful  attractions  this  city  of  Constantine  had 
before  its  fall  !  Owing  to  the  resistless  state  of  the  provinces, 
it  allured  everyone  who  had  means  to  live  within  its  walls. 
Those  who  honored  art  and  studied  the  sciences  were  here 
gathered. 

Above  all,  this  city  was  the  seat  of  intellect,  of  theological 
intellect;  for  here,  or  in  its  vicinity,  were  settled  for  the  coming 
centuries  the  tenets  of  the  Christian  faith.  And  beyond  that, 
there  was  codified  and  almost  developed  in  this  new  Rome  a 
body  of  jurisprudence,  known  as  the  Justmian  Code.  It  con- 
tained the  principles  of  the  Roman  Civil  Law.  Edwin  Pears,  one 
of  the  eminent  lawyers  of  Constantinople,  has  said  of  this  law, 
"  that  for  precision,  subtlety,  grasp  of  principles,  and  wonderful 
adjustments,  it  has  made  a  powerful  impression  upon  the  world." 
When  we  remember  that  it  was  from  here  we  received  the  authenti- 
cated dogmas  of  Christendom,  and  the  principles  of  the  Roman 
law,  which  have  been  followed  in  continental  Europe  almost  since 
the  time  of  early  empire,and  which  have  become  the  law  of  the  whole 
civilized  world,  except  where  the  common  law  of  England  is  re- 
garded as  paramount — it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  this  wonderful 
capital  ranks  second  only  to  Rome  itself  in  her  influence  for 
civilization,  religion  and  progress.  This  city  is  not  alone  a  place 
for  ethical  memories;  for  nowhere  can  we  find  in  the  highways 
and  byways  of  our  planet,  more  splendors  of  wealth,  luxury  and 
refinement  than  she  once  possessed.  Gibbon,  in  closing  his 
seventeenth  chapter,  generalizes  about  her  commerce  in  the  fol- 
lowing sentence  : 

**  Whatever  rude  commodities  were  collected  in  the  for- 
ests of  Germany  and  Scythia,  and  far  as  the  sources  of  the 
Tanais  and  the  Borysthenes;  whatsoever  was  manufactured  by 
the  skill  of  Europe  or  Asia;  the  corn  of  Egypt  and  the  gems  and 
spices  of  the  farthest  India — were  brought  by  the  varying  winds, 


CONSTANTINOPLE  BEFORE  HER  FALL.  \  2  I 

into  the  port  of  Constantinople,  which  for  many  ages  attracted 
the  commerce  of  the  ancient  world." 

At  the  present  day  there  is  no  spot  so  specially  central  for 
commerce,  or  which  is  within  reach  of  so  many  fruitful  and  popu- 
lous countries  as  Constantinople.  Looking  at  the  map  and 
glancing  at  the  Black  Sea,  we  find  a  passage  of  eighteen  miles 
open  to  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  which  is  a  lake  under  the  shadows 
of  the  domes  and  minarets  of  Stamboai,  as  capable  of  being 
defended  as  the  outlet  of  the  Dardanelles. 

Constantinople  has  always  had  a  liberal  policy  as  to  commerce. 
Her  trade  concessions  have  increased  her  wealth  and  power. 
Her  situation  is  so  favorable  that  there  never  was,  nor  can 
there  be,  without  some  strange  convulsion  of  nature,  a  mart 
for  the  collection  and  distribution  of  merchantable  products 
between  the  hemispheres,  equal  to  this  entrepot  on  the  Bos- 
porus. What  a  shame  it  is  that  only  lately  have  the  Powers 
of  the  East  and  the  economies  of  the  West  been  invoked 
for  the  encouragement  of  her  trade,  the  building  of  rail- 
roads, and  the  extension  into  the  opulent  interior  of  all  the  best 
and  fleetest  modes  of  transportation.  Much  is  yet  to  be  done 
before  the  khan  and  caravan  of  the  ancient  merchant  shall  be 
transmuted,  by  the  magic  of  trade,  into  the  depot  of  the  railroad  ! 

May  I  be  allowed,  in  this  connection,  to  copy  from  a  singu- 
larly attractive  work,  called  *'  The  Captain  of  the  Janizaries,"  by 
Mr.  James  M.  Ludlow,  of  New  Jersey,  a  short  colloquy,  which 
indicates  just  what  the  relation  was  between  Constantinople  and  the 
Powers  of  the  earth  at  the  time  she  was  about  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  Turk  ?  His  book  has  reference  to  the  times  of  Scander- 
beg,  and  the  contest  which  preceded  the  arrival  of  Mahomet  the 
Second  upon  the  Ottoman  chrone.  The  attempt  was  then  made 
to  arouse  the  Christian  power  of  Constantinople  against  the 
Turk,  while  the  Italian  and  other  elements  were  striking  him 
in  Europe.  It  was  an  attempt  to  put  some  new  life  into  the 
old  Greek  empire.  Constantine,  the  sixteenth  of  that  name,  was 
then  the  emperor — the  last  of  the  emperors.  He  danced  attend- 
ance upon  Italian  dukes  and  other  influences  of  the  West.  He 
sought  an  agreement  with  the  Pope,  in  a  creed  which  was  irrecon- 
cilable with  that  of  the  Latins.  At  the  same  time  he  was  demoral- 
izing his  reign  with  his  uncurtained  harem,  and  shamed  the 
very  Turk  himself;  yet,  when  the  crisis  of  fate  came,  he  alone 


122  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  V. 

seemed  to  be  worthy  of  the  ancient  Greek  prowess.  He  fought 
and  died — the  last  of  the  stock  which  had  over  a  thousand 
years  of  empire. 

The  incidents  of  the  capture  of  the  city  by  the  Turks  are 
more  romantic  and  attractive  than  those  of  any  other  capture  or 
siege  in  history.  One  of  these  incidents  is  the  navigation 
overland  of  the  Ottoman  vessels.  Much  ridicule  has  been 
expended  upon  the  Eads  mode  of  ship-transportation  by  rail. 
Why  is  it  so  strange  ?  Only  last  year  a  screw  steamer — the 
Duke — was  transported  over  Florida  fifty  miles  or  more,  by  the 
Pensacola  and  Atlantic  Railroad.  The  vessel  did  not  show  a  sign 
of  steam.  Reading  the  history  of  the  capture  of  Constantinople, 
I  was  somewhat  amazed  that  any  one  should  be  surprised  that 
mechanism  in  our  day  should  no't  easily  harness  its  forces  to 
transport  ships  by  rail.  There  seems  to  be  nothing  novel  or 
difficult  in  the  feat.  The  principle  is  as  simple  as  the  ABC 
of  science.  The  difficulty,  if  any  there  is,  with  the  Eads 
scheme,  is  not  mechanical,  but  merely  economical.  Its  accom- 
plishment has  depended  on  the  doubts  of  those  who  do  not 
believe  in  associating  government  or  its  administration  with  mere 
"  business."  When  a  scheme  depends  on  the  loan  of  govern- 
ment credit,  or  the  issuance  of  government  bonds,  there  is  only 
one  view  of  the  case  presented.  This  view  should  not  blind  us 
to  the  utility  or  virtue  of  the  plan  or  invention  of  the  ship  railway. 
Doubtless,  in  ancient  times,  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere — and  even 
in  Central  America,  near  the  proposed  Eads  railway — immense 
masses  of  matter  were  moved  by  means  of  railways,  tramways,  or 
similar  devices.  Evidences  remain,  in  the  solid  rock,  of  such  fa- 
cile contrivances.  Mr.  Eads,  with  that  practical  sagacity  for  which 
he  was  distinguished  as  an  engineer,  may  have  had  his  inventive 
faculties  aroused  by  pondering  upon  these  marvelous  mechanical 
results  of  the  early  epochs.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  the 
feasibility  of  the  Eads  project,  nor  to  compare  it  with  any  other 
plan  for  inter-oceanic  transit.  This  has  been  done  elaborately  by 
engineers.  Admiral  Ammen,  in  a  tractate,  has  considered  the 
various  disadvantages  of  "  taking  a  laden  ship  out  of  water  at 
Tehuantepec,  and  whisking  her  over  a  distance  of  140  miles  or 
more,  and  over  an  elevation  of  738  feet,  making  a  broad  cut  of 
seventeen  feet." 

As  a  legislator,  I  would  give  great  weight  to  his  opinion.     I 


NA  VIGA  TION  ON  LAND.  123 

would  not  tamely  allow  the  American  eagle  to  be  caged  on  any 
isthmus,  nor  take  another  bird,  domestic  or  aquatic,  as  em- 
blematic of  our  abandonment  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  in  order 
that  the  bird  might  be  plucked.  But  as  a  question  of  physics,  I 
would  like  to  hear  an  amicable  discussion  on  the  feasibility  of 
taking  up  and  whisking  the  laden  ship  over  a  railroad.  John  Roach^ 
who  is  now  dead,  but  who  was  acquainted  with  such  matters, 
stated  that  the  performance  would  endanger  the  hull.  In  this 
view  William  H.  Webb  concurs.  Harlan  &  Hollingsworth  say 
that  if  the  foundations  of  the  railroad,  having  six  tracks, 
could  be  made  substantial,  so  as  not  to  yield  under  the  immense 
weight  of  a  loaded  ship,  they  believe  a  cradle  could  be 
constructed  to  receive  it,  and  transport  it  the  distance  named 
without  injury.  They  are  doubtful  about  the  ordinary  wooden 
vessel  venturing  upon  such  a  journey.  They  doubt  whether 
underwriters  would  take  the  risk  of  damage.  Other  experts  in 
shipbuilding  expressed  similar  opinions.  But  they  are  all  iron- 
workers, and  wooden  ships  seem  to  be  passing  out  of  commerce. 
These  opinions  had  reference  somewhat  to  the  material  of  the 
ships.  The  Pusey  &  Jones  Company,  of  Wilmington,  Del., 
thought  that  a  good  iron  ship  might  endure  this  transportation 
without  damage,  but  still  it  would  be  a  risk.  As  to  wooden  ships, 
or  thin-plated  iron  ships,  they  thought  it  would  be  simple  destruc- 
tion. They  regard  the  dynamic  effect  of  the  load,  and  of  the 
boilers  and  machinery,  as  an  extraordinary  peril.  In  short,  in 
their  opinion,  a  ship  railway  would  always  encounter  grave  and 
scarcely  surmountable  difficulties.  Mr.  Rowland,  of  the  Conti- 
nental Works,  has  some  notions  as  to  the  best  method  of  moving 
heavy  bodies  on  wheels.  He  draws  his  argument  from  the  condi- 
tion of  vessels  and  the  injury  which  they  sustain  byl:)eing  dry- 
docked.  Mr.  Nathaniel  McKay,  who  is  a  practical  man  in  rela- 
tion to  such  matters,  holds  the  opinion  that  Captain  Eads's  propo- 
sition is  a  delusion.  As  the  builder  of  some  one  hundred  ships, 
some  of  them  among  the  largest  sailing-ships  in  the  world,  he 
says  the  greatest  care  which  shipbuilders  are  compelled  to  exer- 
cise is  in  laying  the  keels  and  seeing  that  the  foundations  for  the 
launching-ways  have  the  best  possible  bearing  that  can  be 
devised,  so  that  the  vessels  may  be  launched  with  safety,  without 
injury  to  the  hull,  when  sliding  a  distance  of  only  one  and  a  half 
times  its  own  length.     Mr.  Delamater  does  not  believe  in  the 


124 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


scheme,  although  he  admits  that  such  a  feat  could  be  done.  It  was 
for  him  a  question  of  expense  ;  the  expense  would  be  too  great  for 
private  capital.  Our  New  York  Mayor,  Mr,  Hewitt,  with  whom  I 
talked  on  this  topic,  is  familiar  with  forces,  mechanical  as  well  as 
political.  He  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the  plan  would  only  be 
practical  if  an  immense  tank  were  made  and  filled  with  water, 
and  the  ship  were  floated  therein  en  route. 

These  opinions  represent  one  side  of  the  question  from  a  practi- 
cal standpoint.  Properly,  to  offset  them,  the  results  which  history 
furnishes,  and  especially  the  siege  of  Constantinople,  should  have 
reference  to  vessels  such  as  are  now  in  use;  otherwise  the  analogy 
fails.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Venetians  transported  some  of 
their  large  galleys  from  the  River  Adige  to  the  Lake  of  Garda.  A 
similar  feat  had  been  accomplished  by  Augustus  after  the  battle 
of  Actium.  It  was  attempted  by  Hannibal  at  the  siege  of  Tar- 
entum.  But  in  size,  even  the  largest  Venetian  war  galley,  or 
the  triremes  that  were  accustomed  to  plow  the  Mediterranean, 
not  to  speak  of  the  vessels  which  were  used  by  the  Turks  at  the 
siege  of  Constantinople  in  1453,  were  but  as  children's  toys,  com- 
pared with  the  sailing  and  metallic  vessels  of  the  present  day.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  may  be  truthfully  urged  that  there  is  no  com- 
parison between  the  physical  forces  which  are  now  developed  and 
the  forces  employed  in  ancient  times  or  in  the  Middle  Ages,  I 
stopped  in  a  hotel  in  Chicago  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  which 
was  quietly  lifted  two  stories  higher  by  the  aid  of  six  thousand 
jack-screws,  without  my  being  sensible  of  the  motion.  And  why 
may  not  a  ship  be  lifted  and  carried,  with  the  remarkable  mechani- 
cal appliances  of  to-day,  irrespective  of  its  weight  or  its  load  ? 

But  the  reader  may  perhaps  ask.  What  has  the  Eads  ship  rail- 
way or  Chicago  hotels  to  do  with  the  fall  of  Constantinople? 
Only  this:  that  had  the  Greeks  given  as  much  attention  to  apply- 
ing the  mechanic  forces  to  resist  as  their  invaders  did  to  capture 
the  city,  there  might  still  be  a  Greek  empire  in  the  East,  and  no 
Eastern  question  to  vex  diplomats  or  to  give  cause  for  large 
standing  armies  in  Europe. 

The  history  of  the  defense  of  Constantinople  in  a,  d.  1453  re- 
veals a  redeeming  picture  of  the  heroism  of  one  man,  the  Emperor 
Constantine,  and  the  few  thousand  Greeks  and  auxiliaries  who 
were  with  him  during  the  siege.  So  many  attempts  had  been 
made   upon  the  city  before  the  time  of  Mahomed  II.,  and  so 


1 26  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

Staunch  had  been  its  defenses,  that  the  Greeks  relied  upon  its 
traditionary  strength,  instead  of  the  improvements  in  mechanism 
and  armature  which  the  Turks  were  sedulously  studying  and  using. 

The  Latins  held  the  city  for  sixty  years;  the  Greeks, 
after  incessant  warfare,  again  obtained  possession  of  their 
capital.  They  did  not  hold  it  long.  The  Turks  were 
eager  to  seize  the  prize.  Amurath  the  Great  had  made  the 
attempt.  It  was  reserved,  however,  for  his  persistent  son, 
Mahomed  II.,  to  consummate  the  work.  This  Sultan  omitted 
no  effort  in  its  prosecution.  The  Turks  were  then — about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  thirteenth  century — the  most  accomplished  artillerists 
of  the  world;  almost  the  only  ones.  They  knew  that  the  city  of 
Stamboul  could  not  be  taken  from  the  land  side  of  the  triangle. 
They  did  not  attempt  to  take  it  from  the  Marmora  Sea  side  of 
the  triangle;  and  as  they  were  cut  off  by  chains  and  other  bar- 
riers from  coming  down  the  Bosporus  into  the  Golden  Horn, 
what  did  they  do  ?  They  copied  Augustus  and  Hannibal,  and 
anticipated  Captain  Eads.  The  story  is  worth  retelling,  in  the 
light  of  six  hundred  and  thirty  odd  years  of  progress  in  mari- 
time warfare,  transportation,  gunnery  and  mechanism. 

Mahomed  II.  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Turkish  Sultans. 
He  was  of  that  manly  mold  and  stamp  that  conquers  obstacles. 
He  was  not  discouraged  by  them,  although  they  had  impeded  all 
the  efforts  of  his  predecessors.  It  was  this  Sultan  who  resolved 
to  starve  this  great  city  into  capitulation.  His  plan  was  to  cut  it 
off  from  the  Euxine  entirely.  To  this  end  he  built,  at  the  nar- 
rowest part  of  the  Bosporus,  which  is  midway  of  its  length,  the 
stronghold  called  Boghazkesen,  which,  being  interpreted,  means 
the  "  Cut-Throat."  This  is  upon  the  European  side  of  the  Straits, 
and  opposite  the  Asiatic  fortress  which  Mahomed  I.  had  built. 
This  part  of  the  Bosporus,  with  the  surrounding  scenery,  is  one  of 
the  most  picturesque  spots  of  the  world.  Three  thousand  men 
worked  for  three  months,  under  the  protection  of  his  army,  to 
build  their  great  fortress  of  Romoli-Hissar.  Every  vessel  that 
sailed  by  was  compelled  to  pay  tribute. 

No  pleading  nor  diplomacy  could  divert  the  coming  storm 
from  the  city.  In  vain  the  Greek  Emperor,  Constantine,  entreated 
that  the  crops  around  the  city  might  at  least  be  spared  for  food. 
Mahomed's  only  answer  was: 

"I  will  feed  my  horses  therewithal." 


DEFENSE  OF  CITY  AGAINST  TURKS.  12/ 

Notwithstanding  this  shortening  oif  supplies,  Mahomed  found 
that  it  was  no  easy  task  to  take  Constantinople.  It  had  been  called, 
in  the  edicts  of  emperors,  "  The  Well-Defended."  Its  enormous 
walls  and  towers  still  remain  to  attest  their  formidable  strength. 
Artillery  had  not  then, risen  to  the  fine  art  that  it  is  to-day; 
but  even  then  Greek  Gatlings,  Hungarian  Armstrongs  and  Wal- 
lachian  Krupps  were  at  work  perfecting  cannon  of  enormous 
calibre.  Out  of  these  were  projected  granite  balls,  some  of  which 
weighed  twelve  quintals,  or  1,200  pounds.  Some  of  these  mon- 
strous balls  are  still  arrayed  in  harmless  pyramids  outside  the 
castle  of  Romoli-Hissar.  Orban,  the  Wallachian  iron-founder, 
made  the  gigantic  machine  which  threw  such  balls.  It  required 
700  men  to  serve  it.  It  threw  a  shot  a  mile,  covered  the  horizon 
with  a  canopy  of  smoke,  and  filled  the  air  with  its  thunder. 

While  the  Turkish  preparations  were  going  on  for  the  taking 
of  the  city,  its  gates  were  closed  and  the  garrison  were  upon  their 
vigilance.  Alas !  on  mustering  them  there  were  only  4,973 
efficient  men  within  the  walls.  To  these  were  added  2,000 
foreigners,  among  them  500  Genoese.  The  latter  came  by  way  of 
the  Mediterranean.  They  were  commanded  by  one  Justiniani. 
Only  a  few  ships  were  at  the  call  of  the  beleaguered  Greeks — 
fourteen  in  all — and  even  these  were  pressed  from  the  foreign 
shipping  in  the  port.  The  walls,  strong  as  they  were,  had  not 
been  repaired  for  years.  Some  repairs  were  hurriedly  made. 
Physical  forces  were  sought  from  Christian  Europe,  but  in  vain. 
As  a  last  resort  the  Emperor  endeavored  to  close  the  schism 
between  the  Catholic  and  Greek  churches.  No  army  came, 
however,  to  reinforce  the  proposed  ecclesiastical  unity,  out  of 
which  might  have  come  a  tremendous  energy  of  defense.  On  the 
1 2th  of  December,  a.  d.  1452,  the  Roman  Catholic  Legate  cele- 
brated mass  in  honor  of  this  unity  of  Christendom  ;  but  the 
Greek  priests  regarded  it  as  sacrilege.     They  cried  out  : 

"  Give  us  the  Turk's  turban  rather  than  a  Cardinal's  hat  ! " 

Christendom,  therefore,  kept  aloof  from  the  contest.  It  saw 
with  indifference  the  Ottoman  wind  his  powerful  folds  around 
this  last  barrier  of  the  Greek  Christian,  and  not  with  much  regret, 
for  the  Greek  orthodoxy  had  not  infrequently  been  the  champion 
and  abettor  of  Moslem  aggression. 

The  month  of  April,  a.  d.  1453,  saw  more  than  200,000 
Turkish  soldiers  encamped  upon  the  land  side  of  the  city.     This 


128  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

was  not  the  first,  nor  second,  nor  third,  but  the  twelfth  time  that 
the  Moslem  had  invested  this  magnificent  city.  Mahomed's  Kismet 
had  told  him  that  the  city  was  fated  to  be  Mahometan.  Mahomet, 
his  prophet,  had  promised  it  hundreds  of  years  before.  It  was  a 
part  of  the  faith.  During  this  very  investment  one  of  the  grand 
Sheiks  had  discovered  the  bier  of  Eyoub  (which  is  Arabic  for 
Job),  the  sacred  leader  of  the  third  siege.  A  mosque  now  marks 
the  spot  where  this  bier  was  discovered.  This  discovery  gave 
exaltation  to  the  esprit  of  the  Mahometan  troops.  It  was  as  if 
the  green  banner  of  the  Prophet  himself  had  been  newly  found 
and  unfurled. 

The  Greeks  fought  on  the  walls  with  intrepidity.  They  were 
led  by  the  Emperor.  The  Italians  did  their  work  well.  It  was 
no  easy  task  to  fill  up  at  night  the  breaches  which  the  day  had 
made,  and  to  deepen  the  ditches  so  as  to  aid  the  defense.  The 
Turks  did  not  have  the  Greek  fire.  It  has  long  been  obsolete. 
What  it  was  no  one  now  knows;  but  in  spite  of  the  shields  of  triple 
hide  to  guard  the  wooden  towers  and  the  draw-bridges  of  the 
Turkish  invader,  his  machines  were  burnt  by  the  Greek  fire, 
which  the  Greeks  alone  had.  There  was,  therefore,  no  way  on  the 
land  side  to  approach  the  walls.  At  the  end  of  April  a  sea  fight 
took  place  outside  the  harbor.  The  Ottoman  fleet  were  thrown 
into  confusion  by  the  chemical  missiles  of  the  enemy,  while 
reinforcements  from  Italy,  in  ships,  entered  the  harbor.  These 
ships,  in  spite  of  the  numbers  against  them,  sailed  through  the 
Turkish  fleet.  The  chains  were  let  down  to  admit  them,  and 
were  drawn  up  again  behind  them. 

This  disastrous  sea  fight  led  the  Turks  to  ruminate  over  a  new 
plan.  The  Greeks  were  in  the  full  possession  of  the  Golden 
Horn,  and  held  it  along  with  the  Marmora  Sea.  The  Turkish 
vessels  were  in  the  Bosporus,  more  than  a  mile  above,  but  below 
the  fortresses  of  Asia  and  Europe.  Since  the  Turkish  ships 
could  not  enter  the  Golden  Horn  by  water,  Mahomed  and  his 
engineers  conceived  the  daring  thought  of  entering  the  Golden 
Horn  with  his  ships  by  land!  As  the  old  chain  and  the  strong 
walls  and  fortifications  protected  both  city  and  harbor,  Mahomed 
undertook  to  transport  his  boats  overland  and  launch  them  in  the 
Golden  Horn.  The  canals  of  Grant  and  Butler,  in  our 
civil  war,  had  a  similar  strategy  for  their  object,  but  the 
Turks    were    the    more  successful    engineers.      Mr.    Pears,  in 


INVESTMENT  OF  CITY. 


129. 


his  "  Fall  of  Constantinople,"  says  that  Mahomed  transported 
his  boats  over  the  neck  of  land  between  the  modern  Tophane 
and  the  valley  now  known  as  Cassim  Pasha.  Galata  itself 
at  that  time  was  a  walled  city,  and  of  course  the  boats  of 
the  Turk  were  transported  to  the  northwest  of  the  walls. 

The  Turkish  fleet  sealed  the  Straits  at  the  spot  then,  as  now,, 
known  as  Bechiktash.  It  is  on  the  European  side  of  the  Bos- 
porus— just  above  the  superb  imperial  marble  palace  of  Dolma- 
Bagtche.  The  palace  of  Yildiz,  amidst  its  grounds  of 
pleasance  and  beauty,  is  situated  just  above  Bechiktash,  on 
a  height  which  overlooks  the  blue  Bosporus  and  the  azure 
mountains  of  Asia  beyond.  It  was  from  Bechiktash  on  the  20th 
of  May,  1886,  that  I  witnessed  the  sacred  camels  cross  the  Bos- 
porus laden  with  the  Holy  Carpet  for  Mecca — amidst  the  prayers 
of  the  devout  believers,  and  a  throng  of  one  hundred  thousand 
Moslems  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages.  More  than  three  hundred 
years  before,  the  most  singular  work  of  engineering  which  war 
had  up  to  that  time  called  forth,  had  here  its  experiment  and 
success — not  without  religious  awe  and  ceremony,  and  not 
upon  *'  ships  of  the  desert,"  but  with  real  ships,  energized  by  the 
same  religious  esprit. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  refer  to  the  political  or  dynastic  com- 
plications which  led  up  to  the  siege,  nor  to  the  consequences  to 
Italy,  and  especially  to  Venice  and  Genoa,  nor  to  the  Greek  people 
or  to  the  Western  Powers,  by  reason  of  the  fall  of  the  city.  For 
two  centuries,  including  the  latter  half  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
there  had  been  a  rapid  decay  of  the  Greek  empire.  The  country 
round  about  the  city  had  been  desolated.  The  merchant 
princes  of  Venice  and  Genoa  had  rifled  palace,  church 
and  temple,  and  carried  away  the  marble  columns  and  exqui- 
site mosaics.  On  the  otl'er  hand,  the  Turks  had  been 
trained  under  the  rule  of  their  Great  Sultan,  Amurath,  who 
taught  them  honesty  and  valor  by  his  own  noble  example.  When 
the  soaj|f  that  Amurath — Mahomed  II — succeeded  his  father,  he 
was  a  young  man.  He  was  only  twenty-one  years  old.  Young  as  he 
was,  he  made  cool  preparations  for  the  taking  of  the  city.  It  was, 
to  him,  the  fulfillment  of  prophesy.  Gibbon  depreciates  him  some- 
what. He  says:  "  He  was  doubtless  a  soldier,  and  possibly  a  gen- 
eral." But  the  growth  of  his  empire  and  the  fall  of  the  great  capital 
are  evidences  of  his  persistent  genius  for  war  and  conquest.    Be- 


i.^o 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  m  TURKEY. 


BURSTING  OF   THE   BIG  GUN   AT  THE  TURKISH  CAPTURE. 


BIG  GUNS. 


131 


sides,  at  that  time  he  had,  in  addition  to  his  immense  army — which 
was  variously  estimated  at  from  one  hundred  thousand  to  four  hun- 
■dred  thousand  men — before  the  city  the  famous  Janizary  corps. 
They  were  twelve  thousand  in  number.  They  were  of  the  selectest 
blood  of  the  Christians  who  had  been  taken  in  battle  and  been 
trained  in  the  Mahometan  faith.  When  the  siege  began,  the 
Janizaries  were  placed  midway  on  the  land  side  of  the  walled 
•city  before  the  gate  of  St.  Ronianus.  Perhaps  the  most  salient 
feature  of  this  remarkable  siege  was  the  blending  of  the  methods 
•of  ancient  and  modern  warfare  in  its  operations.  The  catapult 
^nd  the  ballista  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were  on  hand, 
hurling  their  showers  of  darts  and  stones.  But  just  as  the 
present  Sultan  utilizes  every  valuable  invention  that  comes 
to  the  Bosporus,  so  his  ancestor  utilized  the  newest  means 
of  destruction  then  known  to  the  world  of  invention  and 
-engineermg.  As  now,  so  then — the  Sultan  resorted  to  the  for- 
•eigner  for  the  most  refined  and  efficient  means.  He  established  a 
gun  foundry  at  Adrianople,  and  employed  the  Krupp  of  that  day, 
Orban  of  Wallachia,  as  its  superintendent. 

On  the  6th  of  April,  a.  d.  1453,  the  siege  began  with  the  firing 
•of  the  big  guns.  The  very  big  gun  was  brought  from  Adrianople. 
It  was  planted,  and  fired.  Other  guns  were  fired  with  600-pound 
■balls  against  the  gates.  It  was  all  in  vain.  The  very  big  gun 
burst,  and  the  engineer  was  hoist  with  his  own  petard.  He  was 
-killed  by  his  own  ''arm." 

The  first  assault  was  resultless.  In  spite  of  the  navy,  the 
big  cannon  and  the  portable  turrets,  and  even  the  valor  of  the 
Janizaries,  the  city  defied  its  assaults.  The  attempts  on  the 
land  side  had  failed. 

Then  came  the  inspiration  and  the  attempt — which  is  the 
gravamen  of  this  chapter — to  convey  some  of  the  Turk- 
ish vessels  overland  and  launch  them  within  the  harbor 
of  the  Golden  Horn.  Some  sixty  of  the  Turkish  vessels 
were  in  the  Bosporus,  anchored  between  the  great  towers 
in  Europe  and  Asia  and  the  place  where  the  Palace  of  Dolma 
Bagtche  now  stands.  The  distance  between  the  last-named  place 
<ind  the  available  point  on  the  Golden  Horn  for  the  launching  of 
the  overland  ships  is  some  five  miles.  The  traveler  will  notice  a 
high  ridge  overlooking  the  Golden  Horn,  upon  which  is  situated 
the  City  of  Pera,  now  a  European  city  inhabited  by  the  Ambas- 


I  3  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

sadors,  dragomans  and  dogs.  There  is  a  long,  sloping  declivity^ 
from  Pera  to  the  waters  of  the  Golden  Horn.  This  slope 
is  now  occupied  by  an  old  neglected  Turkish  cemetery^, 
whose  tombstones  lie  around  in  the  utmost  confusion,  amid 
old  cypress  -  trees.  The  space  to  be  traversed  by  the 
ships  was  then  not  only  hilly  but  wooded.  A  passage  was  cut 
over  the  hills  and  through  the  valleys,  and  laid  with  planks  which 
had  been  well  greased  for  the  occasion  with  the  fat  of  sheep 
and  oxen.  All  the  flotilla,  armed  cap-a-pie,  sailing  through  the 
woods  arid  down  the  hilly  slopes  into  the  Golden  Horn,  was  the  first 
object  which  met  the  Greek  sentinels  upon  the  towers  of  the  city. 
The  work  of  transportation  was  done  by  oxen  and  men,  an  innu- 
merable host,  and  the  fleet  and  the  army  were  thus  brought  in 
unison  within  the  inner  recess  of  the  harbor,  whence  the  city 
was  most  assailable  ! 

There  is  some  contrariety  of  opinion  as  to  the  route  which  the 
ships  pursued  overland,  in  order  to  reach  the  Golden  Horn  from 
the  Bosporus,  but  the  route  indicated  by  the  map  on  the  first 
page  of  the  previous  chapter  is  generally  considered  the  one  thea 
taken.  The  surface  of  the  land  between  Bechiktash  and  the 
Golden  Horn  is  quite  hilly  and  rugged  even  yet.  It  is  probable 
that  it  was  more  so  at  the  time  of  the  Ottoman  conquest.  The 
splendid  palace  of  Dolma-Bagtche  had  not  then  been  erected,  and 
the  various  streets  and  avenues  in  its  rear  were  certainly  not  laid 
out  at  that  time  as  they  are  to-day.  A  deep  valley  intervenes 
between  that  palace  and  the  Military  School  and  Arsenal,  which 
are  prominent  objects  of  observation  at  this  time  from  the 
Bosporus.  It  was,  therefore,  no  ordinary  physical  work  to 
overcome  the  acclivities  between  the  two  points  over  which  the 
ships  were  hauled.  Besides,  it  was  at  a  time  when  the  utmost 
vigilance  in  the  camps  of  the  Italians,  Greeks  and  Turks  was 
observed. 

The  contest  for  Constantinople  might  well  be  called  one  of  the 
pivotal  struggles  of  the  world.  It  was  stupendous  in  its  prepara- 
tion and  in  its  consequences.  After  the  Turkish  fleet  was 
launched  in  this  way,  a  bridge  was  built,  and  artillery  was  placed 
upon  it,  the  garrison  quietly  looking  on.  The  siege  then  began 
on  the  land  side,  and  at  the  end  of  forty  days  the  gate  of  St.  Roma- 
nus  was  in  ruins,  its  towers  were  razed  and  the  Turks  were  ready 
to  assault  the  city.     Such  a  scene  was  never  observed  before,  or 


THE  CITY  FALLS.  \XX 

«ince,  on  those  classic  shores.  The  Moslem  still  holds  his 
rule  at  the  Palace  of  Yildiz,  above  the  very  point  on  the  Bosporus 
from  which  the  movement  of  his  ships  by  land  began. 

There  are  many  stories — many  of  them  apocryphal — about 
the  entrance  of  Mahmoud  within  the  church  of  St.  Sophia.  It  is 
■said  that  he  reined  his  steed  under  the  mighty  dome,  and  made 
that  imprint  of  his  bloody  hand  which  is  still  pointed  out  to  the 
-credulous  tourist  by  the  patriotic  Greek  valet-de-place.  It  is 
further  said,  that  this  sign-manual  is  the  prototype  of  the  toughra, 
■or  cypher,  wherewith  the  Sultan  signs  all  edicts  of  state.  This 
ioughra  appears  in  the  frontispiece,  beneath  the  picture  of  the  Sul- 
tan Abdul  Hamid  II.     It  has  an  involuted  look  quite  diplomatic. 

The  Turks,  after  their  method,  bathe  themselves  and  fast,  and 
perform  other  religious  ceremonies,  preparatory  either  for  death 
■and  the  delights  of  Paradise,  or  victory  and  the  spoils  of  the  rich 
-city.  The  cry  arises  from  the  Moslem,  "  God  is  God,  and  Ma- 
homet is  his  Prophet !"  Then  the  Turkish  infantry  advance  to 
the  attack.  Not  even  the  valor  of  the  faithful  friends  of  the 
Emperor  of  the  Greeks — the  last  of  a  line  of  a  thousand  years — 
-can  withstand  the  fury  of  this  assault.  Under  the  eye  of  the 
Sultan  himself,  the  Janizaries  pioneer  the  way.  A  giant  of  that 
famous  corps,  Hassan  by  name,  leads  the  host  to  victory.  The 
■Greek  emperor  falls,  a  hero  amidst  a  cohort  of  cowards.  On 
the  29th  of  May,  a.  d.  1453,  after  a  siege  of  fifty-three  days,  the 
besieged  people  rush,  as  with  one  accord,  toward  the  Church  of 
^t.  Sophia,  hoping  for  the  descent  of  the  Saint  from  heaven  to 
«ave  them  from  the  enemy.  It  is  otherwise  decreed.  Not  the 
"Saint  but  the  Star  and  Crescent  descend  on  St.  Sophia  and  the 
■city. 

The  complications  which  have  confused  the  dynasties  of  Europe 
and  the  political  philosophers  and  diplomats  of  the  world  then 
began.  It  still  goes  on.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  rule  of  the 
Ottoman  in  the  old  city  of  Byzantium,  one  beneficial  result  was 
accomplished  by  its  fall  in  a.d.  1453 :  the  literary  treasures  heaped 
on  heap  within  the  libraries  and  crypts  of  the  monasteries  and 
•churches  of  the  city  and  its  environs  were  scattered  throughout 
Europe;  scholarship  received  a  new  impulse  in  the  revival  of  its 
learning,  and  the  world,  instead  of  merely  marking  time,  began 
ia  march  toward  a  higher  civilization  than  the  Rome  of  Augustus 
•or  the  city  of  Constantine  had  ever  attained.      How  much  of 


134 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


this  progress  was  due  to  the  Arabic  science,  which  Mahomed* 
the  Second  brought  into  the  Golden  Horn,  we  shall  probably 
never  know. 

Strictly  speaking,  there  was  no  Greek  empire  of  the  East  wheiv 
the  Turks  took  the  city.  It  had  crumbled  away  centuries  before. 
The  Saracens  had  cut  off  many  of  the  Asiatic  provinces  which 
owed  allegiance  to  Byzantium.  The  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  and 
other  important  places  of  the  East  had  nearly  all  been  rescued 
from  the  crusading  Christians.  Until  the  accession  of  the  first  of 
the  Basils,  in  the  year  a.  d.  867,  the  empire  was  usually  regarded  as 
an  eastern  branch  of  the  Roman  empire.  After  that,  it  became 
in  fact  the  Eastern  or  the  Byzantine  empire.  Let  there  be 
no  confusion;  for  if  "  Byzantine"  be  the  designation,  it  must  not. 
be  forgotten  that  the  empire  was  also  Roman.  It  was  called 
Roumania.  It  was  new  Rome.  It  was  thus  distinguished  from 
the  Old  Rome.  The  nomads  only  knew  Constantinople  as  the 
capital  of  Roman  territory.  "  Romaic  "  is  still  the  designation  of 
the  Greek-speaking  population  of  that  empire.  The  city  of  Erze- 
roum  and  the  province  of  Roumelia  are  a  nomenclatural  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  potentiality  of  Old  Rome.  The  Patriarch  of  the 
Orthodox  Greek  Church  is  described  as  a  bishop  of  New  Rome. 
Greek,  however,  was  the  language  of  the  Eastern  empire,  as  it 
was  also  of  the  educated  classes  of  Rome  herself.  It  was  the 
language  of  elegance  and  refinement.  The  Latin  had  its  place, 
and  helped  to  strengthen  or  modify  the  Greek.  Naturally  enough, 
the  sturdy  old  Roman  fathers  despised  the  Greek  tongue  as- 
thoroughly  as  the  English  Saxon  despised  the  French;  and  for  the 
same  unreasonable  pretense  ;  for  had  not  the  Greeks,  like  the 
French,  an  elegance  and  refinement  that  seemed  unmanly  to  the 
ruder  races  ? 

Call  the  Eastern  empire  by  what  name  we  will,  it  was  a  tre- 
mendous power.  It  was  an  empire.  It  lasted  with  miraculous 
pertinacity.  To  what  is  this  permanancy  attributable  ?  Muni- 
cipality !  During  all  the  changes  in  the  capital  and  in  the 
provinces,  and  until  the  empire  finally  fell  before  force,  the 
•forms  of  municipality,  Grecian  and  Roman,  remained.  The 
very  Essnafs,  with  their  artisan  and  trade-unions,  had  their 
share  in  the  rule  of  the  city.  Absolutism  never  entirely  under- 
mined the  spirit  of  Home  Rule.  The  citizen  was  one  thing; 
and   the   soldier   another.      The  foreign   mercenary  was  often- 


MUNICIPAL  FREEDOM. 


135 


times  called  in  to  suppress  the  citizen.  This  municipal  system 
was  the  opposite  of  centralization,  which  seems  to  have  its 
analogy  to-day  in  Russia,  where  the  Emperor  is  looked  upon 
as  the  father  of  his  people,  and  is  hedged  about  with  a  divinity. 
His  acts  are  only  questioned  by  the  Agnostic  and  Nihilist.  Still, 
even  the  Czar,  like  the  old  Byzantine  emperor,  is  surrounded 
by  local  municipal  authority — a  municipal  commune,  the  Zemstro 
— which  the  steam-engine  and  the  telegraph  have  not  altogether 
dissipated  in  this  nineteenth  century.  But  Russian  peasant 
municipality  is  not  even  a  shadow  of  the  old  Roman  and  Greek 
municipality. 

However  much  the  Greek  may  have  worshipped  his  emperor; 
however  much  he  may  have  been  absorbed  by  trade;  how  much- 
soever  the  people  may  have  been  separated,  one  from  the  other, 
— by  mountains  upon  the  mainland  and  islands  upon  the  sea — the 
old  municipal  spirit  survived.  The  merchant  princes  of  the  elder 
empire,  like  the  merchant  princes  of  the  Grecian  race  to-day, 
had  a  power  of  their  own  which  never  deferred  to  absolutism. 

The  spirit  of  municipal  freedom  was  a  part  of  the  condition 
of  the  Conquest  by  the  Turk.  It  is  one  element  of  his  permanency 
both  in  Europe  and  in  Asia.  It  was  nothing  new  to  him.  It 
descended  to  him  as  it  did  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  from 
Patriarchal  rule  in  tribal  groups.  It  is  the  patria  potesta,  at 
once  the  law  of  Nature  and  the  old  civil  law,  which  gave  power  to 
Rome — old  Rome  and  new  Rome — and  which  inspire  the  refine- 
ments of  modern  polity. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    UPPER  BOSPORUS — DIVERSIONS    AT    THERAPIA. 

These  Bosporus  banks,  by  general  consent,  are  considered 
the  most  beautiful  for  scenery,  convenient  for  commerce,  salu- 
brious for  health,  and  interesting  for  association  on  the  globe. 

When  we  came  here  in  1885  we  took  up  our  residence  at 
the  upper  end  of  these  remarkable  Straits,  at  Therapia.  It  is  in 
sight  of  the  Black  Sea.  That  sea,  purified  of  the  dirt  of  the 
Danube,  Dnieper  and  Don,  runs  through  the  Bosporus  into  the 
Sea  of  Marmora,  and  thence  into  the  Mediterranean.  So  clear 
are  these  waters,  so  breezeful  in  their  motion  and  so  useful  to 
trade,  that  at  no  hour  of  the  cool  days  of  summer  can  one  fail 
to  see  an  Austrian,  Russian,  French,  German,  Italian  or  Turkish 
steamer  making  a  snowy  wake  over  their  blue,  very  blue,  very 
deep  blue  surface;  not  to  speak  of  the  hundred  sail  and  caiques 
(or  row-boats)  which  make  the  Bosporus  picturesque  and  at- 
tractive. 

There  is  a  great  similarity  between  the  waters  of  Constan- 
tinople and  those  of  New  York.  This,  tourists  often  remark. 
The  East  River  connects  Long  Island  Sound  with  New  York 
Harbor  just  as  the  Bosporus  connects  the  Black  Sea  with  the  Sea 
of  Marmora  ;  and  the  Golden  Horn  not  inaptly  represents  the 
Hudson  River,  except  in  this,  that  the  Golden  Horn  nearly  divides 
the  city  of  Constantinople.  Perhaps  the  East  River  better  repre- 
sents the  Golden  Horn,  as  it  separates  New  York  from  Brooklyn. 
Stamboul,  the  old  city,  is  situated  on  a  peninsula,  and  is  very 
like  New  York  City.  The  other  part  of  the  city,  which  is  called 
Pera,  would  represent  Brooklyn;  while  Scutari,  across  the  wide 
river,  which  is  always  attractive  by  the  Florence  Nightingale 
Hospital,  might  be  said  to  represent  Jersey  City. 

It  is  a  question,  however,  whether  New  York,  Naples  or 
Constantinople  possesses  the  rarest  harbor  in  the  world.  With 
all  my  partiality  for  New  York — and  perhaps  because  I  know  its 
defects  from  taking  an  active  part  in  remedial  legislation — I  am 

136 


RIVAL  VILLAGES  ON  UPPER  STRAITS. 


m 


inclined  to  give  the  palm  to  the  harbor  of  the  city  of  the  Sultan, 
and  in  this  connection  to  express  a  preference  for  the  comfort 
upon  the  vessels  which  navigate  the  latter  waters,  and  for  the 
gorgeous  panorama  they  unfold. 

In  going  to  and  fro  on  the  Bosporus,  especially  on  the  larger 
steamers  which  navigate  the  Black  Sea  or  cross  the  Marmora,  the 
passengers  are  made  up  of  every  race,  order  and  color  of  people, 
from  the  venerable  Pasha,  whose  family  is  hid  behind  the 
curtains,  to  the  poor  government  clerk,  who  depends  upon  the 
Pasha's  bounty.  If  you  take  a  long  journey  to  any  of  the  ports  of 
the  Black  Sea  in  the  large  steamers  of  Russia  or  Austria,  you  will 
find  the  same  Pasha,  traveling  with  his  family  and  dining  with 
the  passengers,  while  his  wives,  too  often,  browse  outside  on  the 
deck  without  a  murmur.  The  deck-passengers  on  such  steamers 
are  a  motley  mixture:  lazy,  black  eunuchs, servants,  business  men, 
and  women  and  children  of  every  nationality  massed  together  in 
heterogeneous  confusion. 

Therapia  and  Buyukdere  have  always  had  a  quarrel.  It  is 
probably  a  sanitary  quarrel.  The  burning  question  is,  Which 
enjoys  the  milder  climate  ?  I  have  never  tried  the  latter,  but  I 
have  the  former.  The  former  is  always  fresh  and  cool  in  mid- 
summer, while  Buyukdere  is  reported  to  be  otherwise.  Therapia 
has  the  advantage  of  the  breeze  of  the  Black  Sea.  From  our 
home  in  Therapia  we  could  always  look  into  its  mouth.  Buyuk- 
dere appears  like  a  town  shut  in,  as  if  it  were  situated  on  an 
inland  sea,  but  its  improvements  have  surpassed  those  of  Thera- 
pia. When  the  ten  thousand  led  by  Xenophon  had  completed 
their  retreat,  they  stood  upon  the  summit  of  Mt.  Teches.  Their 
joy  was  greater  than  that  of  Moses  and  his  Israelites  when  they 
beheld  the  Promised  Land,  for  Xenophon  and  his  host  sighted 
the  Pontus  Euxinus  and  its  realities,  which  I  have  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  from  my  home  at  Therapia,  under  its  wondrous  sheen  of 
beauty,  every  day  of  summer,  and  in  comparison  with  which  the 
land  of  Jordan  and  its  environment  are  tame  and  uninteresting. 

Philologically  and  mythologically,  the  name  of  the  Strait  has 
received  considerable  discussion.  It  is  generally  agreed  that  it 
means  the  "  Harbor  of  the  Ox."  Webster's  "  latest  "  says  that 
Bosporus  is  the  more  correct  orthography.  It  is  the  English  way, 
but  this  mode  depends  on  etymology.  Without  regard  to  this, 
it  is  the  spot  where  the  goddess  lo  crossed  on  the  back  of  that 


138  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

animal.  The  schoolboy  will  remember  the  legend  of  that  lady, 
who  traveled  over  all  the  world,  with  Juno  closely  following  after 
her,  because  lo  was  too  well  beloved  by  Jupiter.  She  was  put 
to  great  straits  in  the  pursuit — in  fact',  compelled  to  cross  the 
Straits  which  separated  the  Old  from  the  New  World.  Our 
learned  men,  like  Lord  Bacon,  who  find  so  much  recondite 
wisdom  in  the  classics,  say  that  her  crossing  the  Straits  indicates 
the  progress  of  agriculture  !  I  suppose  this  comes  from 
ploughing  the  sea  with  an  ox.  The  more  learned  idea  is  that 
agriculture  came  from  the  East  to  the  West — hence  the  myth, 
of  the  Ox,  which  was  the  animal  first  used  in  farming,  and 
therefore  typical  of  the  noblest  pursuit  by  which  man  lives. 

Notwithstanding  this  legend,  the  Bosporus  was  more  cele- 
brated for  its  fish  than  its  oxen.  It  was  called  the  "  Fishy 
Bosporus" — thus  uniting  piscatorial  and  agricultural  occupa- 
tions. According  to  the  earliest  accounts,  the  early  Byzantines 
drove  a  rich  trade  in  fish.  Shoals  of  fish,  and  especially  of 
a  fish  called  pelamys,  a  sort  of  tunny,  were  accustomed  to  come 
down  from  the  Black  Sea,  attracted  into  the  harbor  by  the  fresh 
water  which  flowed  into  its  upper  end.  What  was  in  the 
water  to  attract  these  finny  creatures,  whether  marine  msects,  or 
whether  they  were  attracted  by  the  growth  of  seaweed,  which 
served  as  pasture,  has  not  been  cleared  up.  Doubtless  the  stream 
lured  the  fish  along,  as  running  water  always  does,  and  its 
currency  made  the  early  fortunes  of  Byzantium.  It  was  to  fish 
that  the  name  "  Golden  Horn "  is  to  be  attributed.  It  was 
derived  from  the  "net"  earnings  which  poured  out  of  this 
cornucopia  ! 

Withm  the  radius  of  no  other  point,  unless  it  be  Thebes  or 
Athens,  are  there  so  many  classical  associations  as  those  which 
have  the  Bosporus  for  a  nucleus.  Here,  unless  we  except  Noah 
and  his  ark,  was  the  first  naval  exhibition  on  record,  and  upon 
this  spot,  fixed  with  certainty  by  pundits,  the  Argonauts  landed 
and  erected  altars  and  offered  sacrifices.  Here  were  the  several 
temples  erected  by  the  Greeks,  but  unhappily  destroyed  by  the 
Persians,  Turks  and  other  invaders.  The  names  signify  the 
sites  of  old  renown.  The  home  of  the  Gauls  is  Galata;  ancient 
Metopon  is  Tophane,  so  familiar  to  our  launch  and  to  our  foot, 
and  where  the  guns  of  Krupp  and  Armstrong  stand  in  belligerent 
array.     The  temples  of   Venus   and    Diana  afterwards   became 


JASON  AND  THE  SYMPLEGADES.  13^ 

churches  of  the  Saviour  and  the  Saints.  The  burning  rocks 
furnish  the  tomb  of  Barbarossa.  The  old  Rhodian  port  is  now 
known  as  Bechiktash.  It  was  once  honored  by  a  temple  to  Apollo. 
All  the  places  which  confuse  the  mind  with  their  Greek  and 
Turkish  names,  from  Cavak  to  San  Stefano,  give  to  this 
renowned  current,  with  its  impetuosity  and  mystery,  a  history 
which  the  reign  of  the  Ottoman  has  not  destroyed,  and  which  no 
power  can  entirely  destroy. 

It  may  be  difficult  to  revive  many  of  the  associations  connected 
with  this  history,  for,  like  the  Straits,  the  history  often  runs  contrari- 
wise. Elsewhere  I  have  spoken  of  the  classic  rocks  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Bosporus;  of  Richard  the  Lion-Hearted  and  his  prison 
here;  of  the  castles  of  Europe  and  Asia;  of  the  Giant's  Moun- 
tain; of  the  old  Genoese  castle  celebrated  for  the  siege  of  Haroun 
Al  Raschid,  with  two  hundred  thousand  men,  and  of  Godfrey 
de  Bouillon  and  his  army,  which  was  encamped  along  these 
waters.  And  yet  these  figures  of  classic  and  crusading  history 
seem  but  dreams  in  this  age  of  reality.  The  sooty  emanations 
of  the  Shirket  ferry,  as  it  goes  up  and  down  the  Straits,  speak  of 
new  motors  and  a  new  element  of  civilization.  No  one  can 
enjoy  a  visit  to  Constantinople  and  its  environments  like  those 
who  tinge  the  realities  of  the  present  with  the  visions  of  the  past. 

With  the  aid  of  the  launch,  we  were  enabled  to  visit,  as  a 
special  Diversion,  a  scene  which  has  both  a  classic  and  a  geologic 
association  of  intense  interest.  An  hour  from  Therapia  will  take 
you  into  the  Black  Sea.  A  half-hour  more  will  take  you  to  the 
Cyanian  rocks,  or  Symplegades,  outside  of  the  Bosporus  stream — 
rocks  famous  in  Grecian  lore.  They  used  to  be  movable,  and 
opened  to  engulf,  like  icebergs,  the  sailors  and  vessels  venturing 
near.  Captain  Jason,  the  skipper  of  the  Argo,  went  through 
them  safely.  He  left  an  altar  upon  their  top,  which  remains  to 
tell  of  his  scrupulous  piety  and  of  Medea's  parental  devotion. 

In  one  of  my  rambles  along  the  Asiatic  shore  I  picked  up 
under  a  hospitable  roof — once  a  Turkish  harem,  now  a  home 
where  Armenian  and  Turkish  girls  embroider  the  rare  fabrics  in 
gold,  silk  and  silver  for  the  refugee  fund  of  the  East — a  rare 
volume  of  poetry.  It  is  entitled,  "  The  Life  and  Death  of  Jason," 
by  William  Morris.  It  starts  with  Jason  in  Thessaly,  beside  the 
tumbling  sea,  "  where  once  dwelt  a  folk  men  called  the  Minyae." 
It  follows  the  princely  hero  in  his  roving,  after  the  demand  for  his 


140 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


kingdom,  and  after  the  promise  for  its  loyal  reconstruction,  if  he 
would  only  find  the  golden  fleece  of  that  ram  that  had  carried 
Phryxus  to  Colchis,  where  the  fleece  was  located.  It  follows  the 
ship  to  the  Bosporus, 

How  does  the  vessel  pass  the  Symplegades  ?  To  answer  this 
question  requires  a  description  of  the  rocks.  These  I  visited  one 
Sunday.  There  was  a  smooth  sea  and  a  clear  sky  for  that  visit. 
Hardly  a  ripple  struck  their  rocky  sides,  and  not  one  of  the  old 
tumultuous  waves  splashed  and  roared  through  their  dark  caverns. 
How  unlike  the  rocks  of  Mr.  Morris's  poem  !  He  locates  them  at 
the  narrow  ending  of  the  sea.  So  far,  good.  That  means  the 
Bosporean  mouth.  But  the  shifting  winds  and  the  flapping  sail 
there  and  then,  which  confused  all  seamanship,  we  did  not  experi- 
ence. The  Jason  mariners  heard  the  pounding  of  the  rocks  and 
saw  the  steaming  clouds  of  spray.  The  "  polished  bases  "  of  the 
Tocks  were  hidden  from  them  by  these  clouds  of  spray,  except 
when  the  sun  cast  its  glittering  eye  into  the  churning  waves  and 
Tnoving  caves.  The  clamor  and  the  movement  scared  the 
Grecian  crew,  but  not  their  intrepid  captain.  Juno  stood  by 
him.  He  was  ambitious,  and  his  arm  had  the  strength  of  seven 
men.  His  voice  was  stentorian,  and  when  he  saw  his  danger,  he 
cried  out  to  the  gods  to  know  if  the  quest  for  the  fleece  was  to 
•end  thus  ignobly. 

The  Argo  is  driven  toward  "  the  dashers."  Jason  takes 
the  helm.  He  begs  of  the  gods  to  let  him  through  the  gates.  A 
<iove  comes  to  the  rescue.  It  is  so  nice,  in  poems  and  when  at 
sea,  to  have  a  dove  handy.  By  its  flight  the  open  place  in  the 
rocks  is  shown,  and  in  the  very  nick  of  time,  after  a  big  blow  had 
spent  itself.  Jason  clutches  the  tiller  tighter;  his  sailors  grasp 
the  oars  with  mighty  force,  and  the  ship  is  driven 

"Unto  the  rocks,  untfl,  with  blinded  eyes. 
They  blink  one  moment  at  those  mysteries. 
Unseen  before— the  next,  they  feel  the  sun 
Full  on  their  backs,  and  know  their  deed  is  done !" 

The  Bosporus  is  by  no  means  always  a  placid  or  a  safe  stream. 
Horace  describes  it  in  four  words: 

"  Novita  Bosporum  Poenus  perhorresdt" 

There  is  beneath  the  tranquil  waters  of  the  Bosporus  a  coa 


STORIES  OF  HERODOTUS. 


141 


Slant  collision  of  currents.  This  is  a  danger  to  navigation,  as 
the  writer  has  had  ocular  demonstration.  It  has  been  ascer- 
tained, beyond  doubt,  that  while  the  upper  current  will  bear 
you  on  its  surface  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Marmora,  the 
under  current  runs  exactly  in  the  contrary  direction.  This  was 
proved  in  early  days  by  the  fishermen,  who,  in  dropping  their 
nets  to  a  certain  depth,  found  which  way  they  swung.  Besides, 
it  is  recorded  in  the  early  writers  who  discussed  the  navigation  of 
the  Bosporus. 

I  have  read  Herodotus.  He  is  called  the  father  of  history,  and 
sometimes  the  father  of  liars.  In  his  lifetime  his  reputation  was 
good,  in  his  own  community,  for  truth  and  veracity.  He  is  therefore 
competent  as  a  witness  in  any  court  of  law.  He  does  not  disdain 
to  speak  of  the  Symplegades.  It  must  have  been  an  old  story 
even  in  his  time.  He  was  a  good  story-teller,  for  he  tells  us  how 
Darius  ascended  these  rocks  for  a  view  of  the  Black  Sea.  It  must 
be  true,  for  I  have  done  the  same  myself.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  fact  to  boast  of.  I  did  it  with  a  sprained  ankle.  There  was 
much  vaunting  among  the  earlier  Greek  explorers.  How  they 
magnify  every  obstruction  to  navigation  !  Evidently,  since  the 
day  when  the  veracious  Herodotus  wrote,  there  must  have  been 
many  structural  changes  in  and  around  the  mouth  of  the  Bosporus. 
He  says  that  the  Ionian  fleet  which  accompanied  the  Scythian 
expedition  of  Darius  sailed  through  these  rocks.  This  is  impos- 
sible; unless  there  was  some  special  seismic  or  volcanic  arrange- 
ment made  for  his  Persians.  Moreover,  he  says  that  on  one  of 
the  islands  there  was  built  a  temple  ;  but  I  am  a  living  witness 
that  there  is  now  little  room  on  the  top  of  the  largest  island  for 
anything  but  an  altar,  which  still  remains.  It  is  likely — since 
Herodotus  cannot  be  gainsaid — that  a  larger  island  existed.  It 
must  have  been  the  great  obstacle  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bosporus 
to  the  navigation  of  the  Euxine. 

Different  causes  have  been  given  for  the  opposite  currents  of 
the  Bosporus.  Maury  attributes  it  to  the  specific  gravity 
between  the  surface  and  under  water.  This  is  a  very  learned 
view  and  weighty.  It  strikes  even  the  unlearned.  The  water  at 
the  bottom  is  more  impregnated  with  salt,  therefore  heavier 
than  the  water  at  the  top,  and  there  is  an  effort  of  the  two  to  find 
their  proper  level.  Another  explanation  is  :  That  there  is  an 
underground   communication   between  the   Caspian   and    Black 


142 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


seas  ;  the  surface  of  the  Caspian  being  lower  than  that  of  the 
Black  Sea,  it  is  thought  that  the  water  is  sucked  from  below 
through  this  underground  channel,  thus  creating  an  undercurrent 
to  the  north  and  to  the  Caspian.  This. is  rather  a  recondite 
explanation  ;  but  it  would  not  be  inconsistent  with  hydrostatics. 
Once  upon  a  time,  it  is  said,  by  geologists  and  others,  that  the 
Black  Sea,  the  Sea  of  Azof  and  the  Caspian  were  one.  This  great 
inland  body  of  water  was  on  a  higher  plane  than  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  the  Marmora.  It  was  held  in  by  the  Symplegades, 
which  plugged  the  mouth  of  the  Bosporus.  About  fifteen 
hundred  and  thirty  years  before  Christ  a  volcanic  eruption  broke 
down  this  barrier  and  flooded  all  the  Mediterranean,  deluging 
the  lower  countries  on  the  south.  The  thirty  years  is  put  in  for 
exactness.  Ancient  writers  refer  to  this  deluge.  Dr.  Washburn, 
of  Robert  College,  confirms  this  view,  but  is  not  positive  as  to 
the  date.  He  offered  to  furnish  me  with  some  geological  matter 
of  his  own  in  confirmation;  but  I  never  received  it,  to  my  regret. 

From  all  these  data  there  can  be  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the 
reader  that  some  great  seismic  movement  once  tore  down  the 
gates  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bosporus,  and  the  pent-up  waters  found 
their  level  in  the  Mediterranean,  even  to  the  flooding  of  the 
countries  in  northern  Africa.  I  have  to  admit,  however,  with  all 
my  own  and  my  borrowed  hydrostatics,  that  it  has  taken  a  long 
time  for  the  two  seas  to  find  a  common  level — for  the  Euxine  is 
still  running  out.  Perhaps  the  most  obvious  cause  of  these 
transverse  currents  is  a  difference  of  temperature.  A  test  for 
this  is  as  simple  as  the  one  for  salt.  I  confess  that  I  have  never 
made  either. 

It  is  a  matter  of  ancient  record  that  the  Bosporus  has  been 
frozen  over  twice.  Unless  the  seasons  have  very  much  changed 
since  the  early  days,  this  would  seem  to  be  very  doubtful — even  if 
recorded  by  Herodotus — especially  a  freezing  over  the  "  Devil's 
current,"  which  is  swifter  than  a  mill-race,  with  the  hydrostatic 
power  of  a  sea  behind  it.  But  with  all  its  geological  and  seismical 
riddles,  no  Strait  is  so  famous  in  history,  and  no  locality  presents 
such  a  combination  of  picturesque  loveliness  and  sublimity  as  the 
Bosporus.  And  in  this  remark  I  do  not  depend  for  vindication 
upon  the  grand  works  of  man — the  domes  and  minarets  which  give 
their  romance  and  charm  to  old  Stamboul  and  the  Seraglio  Point 
—nor   upon  the   crafts,  impelled  by  steam,  oar  and  sail,  which 


BEAUTY  AND  SHAME  OF  THE  BOSPORUS. 


143 


everywhere  ply  upon  the  bosom  of  the  water,  but  upon  the  shores, 
which  are  as  lovely  as  the  heavens  which  bend  over  them. 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  subtle  charm  of  the  landscape  of 
the  Bosporus.  As  well  try  to  picture  with  words  the  idiosyncrasy 
of  a  human  face  of  which  you  are  enamored.  Wherein  consists 
the  peculiarity  of  this  landscape  ?  What  makes  the  light  of  its 
atmosphere  ? 

No  answer  to  these  queries  could  indicate  the  ineffable  charm. 

Aside  from  all  associations  around  the  Bosporus,  such  as  the 
great  strife  by  which  Islam  was  here  enthroned  upon  the  ruins  of  the 
Eastern  Church  ;  aside  from  the  fact  that  this  strife  is  still  being 
waged  upon  these  shores,  a  strife  which  takes  hold  upon  the  view- 
less world  to  come — there  is  a  fascination  in  its  past,  present  and 
future  which  fires  the  imagination  like  the  new  scenes  of  the 
Yellowstone  or  the  Yosemite,  and  radiates  it  with  the  influence  of 
poetry  and  the  affluence  of  color  and  imagery.  Even  a  traveler 
accustomed  to  the  balm  and  beauty  of  the  skies  ^of  southern 
Italy  may  here  find  its  counterpart  in  the  soft  balminess  and 
delightful  beauty  of  earth  and  sea  and  sky. 

Still  the  Bosporus  might  be  improved.  It  has  some  /z«-fra- 
grances.  Going  up  and  down  a  good  deal  in  our  launch,  we  meet 
with  many  a  nuisance.  The  horses  that  die  are  thrown  into  the 
stream.  It  is  expected  that  they  will  be  carried  off  by  the 
current,  bnt  the  current  is  eccentric.  When  it  goes  down 
seemingly,  it  may  go  up  really,  and  when  it  appears  to  go  up  or 
•down,  it  may  swirl  off  into  an  eddy.  The  bodies  that  are  thrown 
into  the  Straits  often  rise  to  the  surface,  and  are  floated  into  a 
corner.  There  they  lie  and  rot  until  assisted  by  some  boatmen 
to  drift  again  into  the  current.  There  are  a  great  many  unused 
caique-holes,  called  caik-hanes.  Many  of  them  have  no  gates. 
They  are,  therefore,  sinks  of  putrefaction.  They  are  nauseat- 
ing, with  their  bad  odors.  Animals  are  sucked  in  to  taint  the 
house  which  is  above  the  hole.  It  is  not  unusual  to  see  dead 
horses,  dogs,  calves  and  porpoises  on  both  sides  of  the  Bosporus. 

Another  drawback  to  the  beauty  of  the  stream  may  be 
mentioned.  In  the  Orient,  where  there  are  seldom  any  fire- 
places in  the  buildings,  you  will  see  in  the  winter  the  beauty  and 
architecture  of  the  houses  destroyed  by  long  sheet-iron  pipes 
protruding  from  the  windows.  In  the  better  houses — palaces, 
even — the   only   warming   apparatus,  as   in   the   palace   of    the 


144 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


Vatican,  is  a  large  iron  or  brass  basin,  called  a  mangal.  This 
mangal  contains  glowing  coals,  free  from  unpleasant  gas.  It  is 
sometimes  richly  chased.  I  have  seen  exquisite  work  of  this  kind 
in  the  palace  of  Yildiz.  Its  elegance  does  not  compensate,  in 
inclement  weather,  for  the  absence  of  a  stove  or  so  in  the  roomy 
houses.     Hence  the  ungainly  stove-pipes. 


HE  BOSPORUS 


One  trip  ought  not  to  be  omitted  in  the  summer  season.  I 
shall  never  forget  it,  as  it  led  to  the  locality  of  a  strange  race 
who  have  the  Orient  for  their  origin — I  mean  the  Gypsies  of  the 
valley  of  Buyukdere.  Buyukdere  means,  in  the  Turkish,  "  the 
forty  trees."  On  the  beautiful  tented  fields  spread  out  around 
these  trees  I  have  seen  in  mid-summer  these  Gypsies.     They  are 


GYPSIES  AT  BUYUKDERE. 


145 


as  ready  to  shoe  your  horse  as  to  tell  your  fortune.  These  wan- 
derers are  disliked  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  Turkey.  Does  this 
come  from  fear  of  the  mysterious  ?  We  found  nothing  but  kind- 
ness in  visiting  their  tents,  and  a  tender  of  food  and  hospitality. 
Call  them  Zingari,Tartar,  Gigonza,  Gitanna,  or  Rom  (man),  as  they 
call  themselves,  or  as  we  call  them,  Gypsies;  whether  they  came 
from  India,  fleeing  before  Tamerlane,  or  elsewhere — they  lead 
here,  as  in  other  places,  a  most  remarkable,  itinerant  life.  This  is 
not  their  worst  condition.  Despised  by  the  Turk,  and  without 
commiseration  from  the  Christian,  they  are  the  pariahs  of  the 
land  ;  and  yet  to  me,  constantly  observing  them,  both  in  the 
field  and  in  the  city,  I  could  not  make  out  that  they  were  worse 
than  the  ordinary  people,  except  in  their  vagabondage.  Over 
the  Galata  bridge  their  little  girls,  in  their  picturesque  raven  hair, 
brown  complexion,  splendid  eyes  and  white  teeth,  in  tatters  and 
rags,  dash  after  and  beg  from  every  carriage.  The  mothers  carry 
their  babes  in  slings,  sometimes  on  the  back  and  sometimes  at  the 
breast.  The  stalwart  men  carry  poultry  or  calves  under  their 
arms;  but  they  all  betray  a  remediless  condition  of  abject  poverty. 
The  Christians  call  them  '*  children  of  the  Evil  One  ;  "  but 
they  have  ever  shown,  when  I  have  met  them,  only  the  common 
importunity  for  alms,  and  that  plentiful  humor  and  good  temper 
which  is  in  happy  contrast  with  their  condition. 

In  a  former  chapter  the  Gypsies  were  referred  to  with  as 
much  charity  as  our  vagrant  human  nature  demands.  We  are 
all  Gypsies,  in  the  sense  of  trade  and  locomotion.  The  difference 
between  the  Gypsies  of  the  Old  World  and  those  whom  we  see 
vagabondizing,  telling  stories,  trading  or  stealing  horses,  and 
occasionally  kidnapping  a  child,  is  the  difference  between  one 
class  of  vagabonds  and  another. 

The  evidence  from  the  language  traces  the  origin  of  this  race 
to  India.  In  the  fifth  century  a  Persian  king  received  from  an 
Indian  king  a  pretty  gift  of  12,000  musicians  of  both  sexes.  They 
were  luris.  It  is  Persian  for  Gypsy.  They  are  known  in  Arabia 
as  the  Zott  people;  in  Turkey  as  zigeuner,  or  musicians;  and 
among  themselves  as  Rom,  or  man.  Sometimes  they  became  so 
predatory  that  an  army  was  called  in  to  subdue  them;  but  since 
A.  D.  855,  when  they  came  into  the  Byzantine  empire,  they  have 
not  caused  any  turbulence  in  the  composite  social  order  of  either 
the  Greek  or  Ottoman  empires. 


1 46  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Another  trip  worth  making  in  mid-summer  is  to  Kilios,  the  life- 
saving  station  near  the  Symplegades.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say 
why  I  made  this  trip. 

It  was  no  slight  adventure  which  took  us  over  the  bosom  of 
the  Black  Sea  in  our  frail  "  mouche,"  to  visit  Kilios.  When  we 
arrived  at  that  point  we  were  amply  repaid  for  the  trip  by  the 
kindness  of  Captain  Palmer's  officers,  for  the  captain  was 
then  absent,  and  by  the  practice  with  the  rocket  and  other 
apparatus. 

Since  my  visit  to  this  wild  and  wonderful  point  on  the  Euxine, 
I  have  studied  the  service  at  these  posts.  It  is  sustained  by  a  tax 
on  the  tonnage,  levied  under  Turkish  authority.  The  tax  is  not 
much,  but  it  is  enough,  although  it  is  said  one  can  never  have 
enough  of  a  good  thing.  The  gentleman  here  most  interested  in 
this  service  is  Mr,  William  H.  Wrench,  the  British  Consul  at 
Constantinople.  He  is  the  "  European  Delegate  on  the  Adminis- 
tration of  the  Black  Sea  Life-Saving  Service."  He  is  vigilant 
and  active  in  his  duty.  It  is  a  delight  to  have  such  a  humane, 
practical  hobby.  That  I  know  from  nearly  twenty  years'  expe- 
rience at  home  as  to  the  same  benignant  service. 

The  service  here  within  the  last  four  years  has  guarded  a 
coast  line  of  thirty  miles  on  each  side  of  the  Bosporus.  There 
are  eight  stations  on  the  European  coast,  two  of  which  possess 
lifeboats.  These  boats  are  in  good  order,  and  are  manned  by 
seventy  men  and  four  officers.  There  are  seven  stations  on-  the 
Asiatic  coast.  Two  of  them  have  lifeboats,  with  seventy-two 
men.  These  men  are  nearly  if  not  all  Turks,  and,  as  my 
observation  shows,  they  are  sober,  active  and  brave  men.  Work 
is  still  going  on  for  the  improvement  of  these  stations. 

Captain  Samuel  Palmer,  the  hero  of  the  incident  I  shall  relate, 
superintends  the  European  stations.  When  on  a  visit  to  his 
station,  there  was  shown  me,  with  much  sensibility,  the  photograph 
of  his  father,  who  was  drowned  in  1878  near  Kilios,  in  assisting  to 
rescue  the  passengers  of  a  stranded  Turkish  transport.  He 
looked,  as  his  son  looks,  the  incarnation  of  dauntless  pluck,  cool 
caution  and  commanding  qualities. 

The  Asiatic  stations  are  commanded  by  Matthew  Summers. 
He  is  also  English,  and  is  known  in  England  for  his  honorable 
association  with  the  rocket  service.  The  crews  here  do  not  use 
the  howitzer  to  throw  the  line,  as  we  do,  but  the  rocket.     The 


SHIPWRECK  AND  LIFE  SA  VERS. 


147 


relative  value  of  the  two  methods  has  been  tested.  The  advantage 
is  with  the  gun. 

The  incident  I  meant  to  relate  concerns  a  Russian  vessel — 
the  Emperor  Alexander  J  I.,  a  mail-boat  of  the  Russian  Steam 
Navigation  Company.  This  vessel  was  making  for  Constantinople 
from  Odessa,  when  she  stranded  on  the  1 8th  of  February,  1886, 
between  i  and  2  o'clock  in  the  morning.  She  struck  ground 
^bout  eighteen  miles  west  of  the  Bosporus  entrance.  The  patrol 
saw  her  strike,  and  gave  the  rocket  signal.  Within  an  hour  fifteen 
men  from  the  two  rocket  stations  of  Ak-Bownad  and  Agatchli  were 
•on  hand  with  their  rocket  apparatus.  Before  the  danger  became  im- 
minent, whi-r-r!  whizz!  went  a  rocket  over  the  vessel.  The  entente 
was  at  once  established  between  ship  and  shore,  between  peril 
•and  safety.  Kilios  was  twelve  miles  off.  Captain  Palmer  was  there. 
A  messenger  was  sent  for  him.  He  was  reached  at  4  a.  m.  The 
messenger  traveled  his  twelve  miles  in  loose  sand.  Our  life-savers 
know  what  that  means.  There  was  a  heavy  sea.  The  captain, 
however,  launched  his  lifeboat.  He  had  a  hard  time  in  get- 
ting her  through  the  surf.  The  current  was  against  him. 
In  two  hours  he  made  only  four  miles.  He  put  his  boat  about 
and  went  back  with  the  current  to  Kilios.  The  waves  increased. 
At  the  entrance  to  Kilios  harbor — a  most  romantic,  wild  and 
<lesolate  place — his  boat  was  imperilled.  A  comber,  such  as 
wlielmed  a  Barnegat  boat  off  our  New  Jersey  coast  not  long 
rsince,  took  his  boat  abeam,  after  it  was  knocked  over  by  a  heavy 
sea.  The  boat  filled.  It  escaped  by  a  few  feet  from  a  wild  dash 
•against  a  sunken  rock,  for  the  shore  is  rocky,  as  all  know  who 
have  entered  the  Bosporus.  But  the  gallant  captain  beached  his 
boat.  Then,  like  King  Richard,  he  called  for  a  horse,  and  reached 
the  scene  of  the  disaster  at  10  in  the  forenoon. 

What  had  happened  while  the  captain  and  his  men  were 
thus  struggling  ?  The  Russian  captain  had  sent  a  bottle  ashore 
by  the  buoy.  It  contained  only  the  name  of  the  vessel. 
When  Captain  Palmer  appears,  a  man  in  the  ship  is  placed 
in  the  buoy  and  is  hauled  ashore.  He  is  a  Turkish  shep- 
herd— in  charge  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  sheep  aboard.  Fol- 
lowing him  in  the  buoy  are  the  passengers,  numbering  about 
one  hundred.  They  land  in  quick  succession  and  are  sent 
to  the  nearest  station,  where  hot  tea,  brandy  and  dry  clothing 
«ire  ready.    The    large  number  saved  require  extra  provision, 


148  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

and  other  stations  are  summoned,  with  their  hands  for  the  whip 
line  and  their  comforts  for  the  rescued.  The  laborers  on  the 
Government  farm  near,  and  some  charcoal  burners,  also  come  to 
the  rescue.  By  4  in  the  afternoon  ninety-six  persons,  among 
them  thirty-one  women,  are  saved.  They  are  all,  except  two^ 
Russian  peasant-pilgrims  bound  for  Jerusalem. 

This  curious  shipload  of  pilgrims  was  brought  down  to  Con- 
stantinople, where  they  were  cared  for.  The  Sultan  sent  them 
a  large  purse  for  their  comfort,  and  the  Russian  Embassy  gave 
them  every  attention. 

When  I  started  on  my  Egyptian  journey  in  February,  1886, 
upon  the  Russian  steamer  Casarovitch  I  had  a  close  look  at  about 
one  hundred  of  this  class  of  sheepskin-clad  pilgrims.  They  are 
of  the  Greek  Church,  and  believe  that  if  they  can  only  reach  the 
Holy  City  their  calling  and  election  are  sure.  They  go  in  droves 
to  the  Old  Jerusalem,  with  an  eye  on  the  "  New."  Far  away, 
upon  the  shores  of  the  Volga,  Don  and  Dnieper,  they  live  and 
worship  with  a  faith  that  makes  religion  a  romance.  With  only 
funds  enough  to  reach  Jerusalem,  they  venture  forth  under  the 
guidance  of  some  leading  man  or  woman,  who  directs  and  cheers 
them  on  their  way  with  recitations  and  prayers  that  shame  the 
soi-disant  Christian  folk  of  other  lands.  When  they  arrive  at 
Jerusalem  the  great  Russian  convent  buildings  receive  and  care 
for  them  till  their  eyes  are  gladdened  with  glimpses  of  the  golden 
pavements  and  alabaster  walls,  and  then,  if  alive,  they  return  to 
their  Russian  homes. 

The  marvel  of  the  saving  grace  of  the  life  service,  as  illustrated 
above,  on  the  Black  Sea  is  in  the  number  of  lives  saved,  and  at 
the  rate  of  one  in  every  three  minutes  of  the  time  employed. 
There  are  in  our  incomparable  service  but  few  incidents  like 
this.  I  recall  the  rescue  of  the  Amerique  passengers,  near  Long 
Branch,  as  one  of  these  incidents. 

I  will  conclude  this  incident  by  a  description  of  the  modus 
operandi  by  which  this  marvel  was  effected.  Both  Captains  Palmer 
and  Summers  are  inventive  men,  and  have  endeavored  to  improve 
their  paraphernalia.  I  made  a  little  sketch  of  the  "rigging  "  of 
Captain  Palmer.  The  reader  will  see  that  instead  of  employing 
one  traveler-block,  Palmer  uses  two,  the  one  attached  to  the 
breeches  buoy  and  running  on  the  hawser  in  the  usual  manner, 
but  the  other,  which   is  called  the  "  leading  traveler,"  runs  on 


INVENTION  FOR  SA  VING  LIFE. 


149 


the  hawser  about  four  feet  in-shore  of  its  companion  when  the 
hawser  is  set  up  fri)m  the  shores  to  the  wreck.  It  is  kept  at  this 
distance  by  a  clove-hitch  in  the  whip  line,  which  thus  passes  from 
one  traveler  to  the  other,  exerting  its  force  on  the  "  leading 
traveler "  in  bringing  the  breeches  buoy  from  the  vessel  to  the 
shore,  and  on  the  traveler  in  taking  the  buoy  to  the  vessel.  From 
the  "  leading  traveler"  to  the  breeches  buoy  two  slings  descend, 
which  are  attached  to  the  points  at  -which  the  two  in-shore  slings  of 
the  buoy  itself  are  made  fast.  By  this  arrangement,  so  says 
Palmer,  not  only  is  the  breeches  buoy  kept  level  on  the  water  the 
same  way  as   by   "  Summers's  method,"  but   the  hawser  is   not 


LIFE-SAVING  BREECH. 


depressed  into  the  V-like 
shape  it  assumes  when  all 
the  weight  of  the  man  in 
the  buoy  falls  on  one  trav- 
eler alone;  and  as  the  haw- 
ser is  not  so  depressed,  the 
drag  for  the  men  hauling 
on  the  whip  line  is  from 
one-third  to  one-half  less 
heavy. 

Captain  Palmer  was  not 
forgotten  by  the  Russian 
Government,  for  his  efforts  in  saving  the  passengers  of  the  %\iv<^  Alex- 
ander II.  The  Czar  sent  him  a  splendid  testimonial,  and  the  com- 
pany to  which  the  ship  belonged,  gave  him  a  more  substantial 
reward  in  a  silver  service,  in  recognition  of  his  courage  and  skill. 
Speaking  of  the  Life-Saving  Service,  in  which  our  own  country 
takes  so  much  pride,  I  have  had  occasion  to  know  of  another 
heroic  act.  It  was  achieved  by  a  common  Turk.  His  name  was 
Mustapha.  I  here  recount  it :  A  ship  is  wrecked  off  a  high  bluff 
m  the  night ;  cries  of  distress  near  the  bluff  are  heard.  Mustapha 
is  let  down  the  bluff  over  a  hundred  feet  by  a  rope  secured 
around  his  body.  Being  a  seaman,  he  struggles  with  the  waves 
which  dash  violently  against  the  bluff.     He  seizes  the  imperiled 


I50 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IX  TURKEY. 


man,  but  is  himself  dashed  senseless  by  the  waves.  He  loses, 
his  grip  on  the  man.  He  is  drawn  up.  Then  having  been 
brought  to  by  his  friends,  he  goes  down  again,  and  a  third  time. 
Finally,  he  brings  up  the  sailor,  or,  rather,  the  dead  body  of  the 
sailor.  This  hero  is  the  much  decned  Mussulman,  yet  the 
Mussulman  certainly  attested  his  faith  by  his  works.  He  is  but 
one  among  thousands  of  the  same  race.  ^Vhether  it  is  brave 
because  it  believes  in  Fate  or  not,  certainly  his  Allah  has 
"made  him  just  and  right,  suflficient  tc  have  stood,  though 
free  to  fall." 

Most  of  the  officers  of  the  Turkish  Government  live  outside 
the  city  in  summer.  They  have  palaces  or  konaks — country 
villas — upon  the  banks  of  the  upper  Bosporus  or  upon  the  hills^ 
round  about.  On  the  upper  waters  of  the  Bosporus,  Therapia 
and  Buyukdere  are  approachable  by  the  Shirket,  or  ferry,  which 
lands  every  quarter  of  an  hour.  These  ferries  are  crowded  with 
people;  for  no  people  are  more  fond  of  movement  out-doors  than 
the  Levantine  and  Turkish  population.  Some  hours'  ride  above 
the  city,  at  Buyukdere  and  Therapia,  on  the  European  shore  of 
the  Upper  Bosporus  are  situated  the  palaces  of  the  Ambassa- 
dors of  the  great  Powers.  Here  are  the  Russian,  English, 
Austrian,  German,  French,  Persian,  Italian,  American  and  Greek 
Ministers.  Most  of  them  live  in  grand  style.  Their  resources- 
are  seemingly  unlimited.  They  are  visited  by  the  Pashas,  Beys, 
Effendis,  Agas,  and  other  notables  and  officials  of  the  Ottoman 
empire.  ^Vhen  convened  under  various  auspices — as,  for  example, 
at  the  Russian  Legation,  under  the  rockets'  glare  and  pyrotechnic 
display  outside,  and  music,  flowers  and  festivities  within — the 
scene  is  quite  dramatic.  These  embassies  are  in  jserpetual 
motion,  toward  and  from  one  another.  By  stationnaires^  i.  e., 
large  naval  vessels,  or  by  steam  launches,  or  by  ten-oared  caiques, 
they  move  up  and  down  the  Straits,  and  zigzag  across  to  Asia 
and  back,  as  if  in  perpetual  unrest.     This  is  diplomacy. 

When  the  conferences  were  in  session  during  the  summer  of 
1885,  this  movement  was  accelerated  ;  for  the  Bulgarian  and  the 
Egyptian  questions  were  very  prominent  among  the  Pashas  and 
the  Mmistry,  as  well  as  among  the  Ambassadors  of  the  great 
Powers.  Sir  Drummond  Wolf,  the  English  special  Ambassa- 
dor, was  here,  doing  his  drvoirs,  among  the  other  Envoys,  at  the 
Porte  in  Stamboul,  and  at  the  Sultan's  palace  of  Yildiz.     I   met 


FOREIGN  MINISTERS. 


151 


him  frequently  on  the  quay  at  Therapia,  where,  as  old  Parliamen- 
tarians, we  talked  of  the  battles  we  had  fought  in  legislative 
capacities. 

These  Ministers,  with  whom  I  mingled  much  in  the  summer 
of  1885,  are  not  distinctively  national.  They  are  selected  for 
their  cosmopolitan  manners,  tact  and  ideas.  The  then  English 
Minister  was  Sir  William  A.  White.  He  was  followed  by  Sir 
Edward  Thornton,  whom  I  knew  in  Washington.  But  since  that 
time  Sir  Edward  has  retired.  He  is  followed  again  by  Sir  Will- 
iam. This  latter  gentleman  has  been  abroad  almost  all  his  life. 
He  was  recently  in  Roumania,  where  he  acted  as  Minister. 
He  knows  many  languages,  and  he  is  perhaps  more  accomplished 
in  the  Danubian  questions  than  any  one  connected  with  any 
embassy.  Among  the  others  whom  it  is  pleasant  to  recall,  is  the 
Baron  de  Calice,  the  Austrian  Ambassador,  He  tendered  to  us 
our  first  dinner,  and  made  up  by  his  courtesy,  and  that  of  his 
charming  wife,  for  that  which  our  Department  of  State  seemed  to 
find  lacking  at  the  Austrian  court  in  the  reception  of  the 
Minister  whom  we  tendered  to  Vienna.  He  is  a  man  of  varied 
accomplishments.  He  has  made  treaties  in  the  farthest  East, 
in  Japan,  and  early  won  consular  laurels  at  Liverpool.  The 
Italian  Minister  is  Count  Corti,  who  is  well  known  in  America, 
having  represented  his  country  at  Washington  for  many  years.  He 
has  been  transferred  to  London.  The  French  Minister  at  that 
time.  Count  de  Noailles,  was  called  away  by  the  death  of  his 
father.  M.  Nellidoff,  the  Russian  Ambassador,  is  a  man  of 
great  experience,  finesse,  and  skill  in  diplomatic  arts.  He  was  chos- 
en for  this  capital,  to  aggrandize  his  country's  interests.  He  is  well 
seconded  by  the  Chancellor,  M.  Onou.  M.  Radowitz,  the  German 
Minister,  left  his  grand  palace  upon  the  heights  of  the  Bosporus, 
near  the  city,  for  his  home  on  the  Upper  Bosporus,  where 
Germany  is  now  building  another  palace  for  her  Legation.  He 
seemed  to  be  the  least  troubled  of  any  of  the  Ambassadors 
about  the  impending  questions.  The  American  Legation,  where 
we  spend  the  summer,  is  situated  above  the  English  Legation 
in  Therapia.  Our  flag  is  always  flying  upon  Sunday  and  on 
fete  days,  within  fifty  feet  of  the  clear,  plashing  waters  of  the 
Bosporus,  midway  between  the  quay  and  the  hill-top,  and  in  sight 
of  the  mouth  of  the  Black  Sea.  The  residence  is  surrounded  by 
a  beautiful  garden,  in  which  the  magnolia-trees  are  conspicuous. 


1 5  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Its  terraces  reach  to  the  top  of  the  mounta.n,  ana  are  covered 
with  flowers,  shrubs  and  creepers.  The  frequency  with  which 
the  steam  launch  of  the  American  Legation  moves  about  during 
the  summer  of  1885  shows  that  Mr.  Heap,  the  Consul-General, 
and  the  Minister  himself,  who  reside  together,  are  keeping  up 
their  part  in  this  Oriental  movement.  What  a  curious  life  it  is  ! 
It  is  called  rest  by  some  of  my  friends  at  home.  I  should  call 
it  restive. 

This  life  has  its  comic  phases.  One  of  them  consists  in 
the  strange  commingling  of  various  nationalities,  united  under 
an  order  established  by  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  the  early 
Sultans. 

"Foresight,"  I  say,  for  it  was  here,  upon  the  shore  of  these 
waters  which  flow  to  the  old  Propontis,  that  Suleiman,  the  son  of 
Orchan,  and  grandson  of  Othman,  saw  the  crescent  of  the  moon 
rise  before  him  !  It  was  the  emblem  of  his  race,  and  in  its  sign 
he  entered  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  conquered.  Temples 
and  palaces  floated  up  out  of  the  great  deep,  and  mysterious 
voices  blended  with  the  sound  of  the  sea,  exciting  in  his  heart 
a  yearning  for  enterprise  and  a  sense  of  supernatural  mystery. 
This  is  the  story  told  by  the  German  historian.  It  is  often  quoted 
as  an  inspiration.  Out  of  it  the  earlier  Turks  forwarded  their 
schemes  of  conquest  and  advancement. 

'J'here  is  no  parallel  to  the  climate  of  the  upper  Bosporus. 
In  the  summer,  the  proximity  of  the  seas  creates  a  current  of 
wind  which  mitigates  the  hot  weather  ;  but  the  same  influences  do 
not  obtain  in  winter.  In  summer  the  air  is  so  deliciously  pure 
that  it  is  tonic  to  the  body  and  exhilaration  to  the  spirit.  Some 
one  has  said  that  Constantinople,  in  its  best  season  and  estate, 
drives  away  all  care,  and  makes  existence  a  beatitude  ;  or,  to  use 
the  exaggeration  of  another,  "  Here  you  could  almost  be  willing 
to  lose  your  dearest  friends,  and  rejoice  at  their  departure." 
The  climate  had  not  this  Lethean  effect  on  me. 

The  winter  upon  the  Bosporus  does  not,  as  I  have  said,  begin 
until  late,  so  that  its  rigors,  which  are  experienced  in  February, 
have  no  counterpart  in  December.  We  therefore  make  it  our 
pleasure  and  duty  to  seek  a  softer  clime. 

The  President  having  given  a  sixty-day  leave  in  February, 
we  spend  the  remainder  of  the  winter  in  Egypt  and  Greece. 
Such  an  excursion,  I  venture  to  say,  no  man  ever  enjoyed  more 


OFF  TO  EGYPT. 


153 


than  the  writer.  At  the  time  I  left  Constantinople  the  Egyp- 
tian question  was  under  full  headway  in  Egypt.  Ghazi  Mouk- 
tar  Pasha  had  been  sent  as  the  special  high  commissioner  of  the 
Sultan  to  that  bedevilled  country.  Our  arrival  at  Alexandria, 
and  subsequent  sojourn  and  Nile  trip,  under  the  telegraphic  au 
spices  of  the  Sultan  to  his  commissioner,  if  they  were  recounted, 
would  make  an  episode  quite  as  diverting  as  any  of  our  Ottoman 
experiences. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

POSSIBILITIES      AND      ACTUALITIES      OF      PETROLEUM  AMERICAN 

INTERESTS. 

To  enhance  the  American  influence  in  the  Ottoman  empire 
requires  something  besides  our  American  teachers  and  preachers. 
Trade  is  the  forerunner  of  civilizing  influences  as  well  as  its  con- 
comitant. Our  trade  with  Turkey  is  insignificant.  Our  flag  is 
never  seen  on  the  Bosporus,  except  upon  our  launch.  Such  trade 
as  we  have  is  the  importation  of  petroleum  and  the  exportation 
of  rugs  and  carpets.  The  petroleum  trade  is  of  the  largest 
amount  and  interest.  From  recent  developments,  it  would 
seem  as  if  the  crust  of  the  ultra-American  earth  was  in  com- 
petition with  our  own  crust,  in  spouting  its  petroleum.  How 
can  I  take  a  universal  view  of  this  growing  question  ?  Europe, 
Asia,  Africa  and  America  are  engaged  in  giving  light  and  force 
out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  Since  magic  belongs  to  the  East, 
I  must  evoke  some  supernatural  or  sub-natural  enginery.  I 
will  visit  the  Sultan,  and  borrow  from  him  the  celebrated  "  cap- 
of  Fortunatus,"  which  tradition  intrusts  to  that  ruler.  It  is  not 
generally  known  that  this  wonder  of  our  boyhood  was  in  the  cus- 
tody of  the  Sultans  ;  but  every  one  knows  that  whoever  puts 
this  cap  on  his  head,  and  wishes  to  be  in  any  part  of  the  world, 
will  find  himself  there  in  a  moment.  I  am  graciously  favored 
by  His  Majesty  with  the  loan — for  this  chapter  only — of  this 
invisible  head-dress.  I  can  now  do  more  than  Madame  Blavat- 
schi,  or  the  other  theosophites.  I  can  not  only  fly,  myself,  to  the 
uttermost  and  innermost  parts  of  the  earth,  but  I  can  take  you, 
my  reader,  with  me. 

"  I  wish  to  be  in  America."  Presto  !  Here  we  are  !  **  Give 
us  a  peep  at  petroleum."  "  Where  are  we  ?"  "  One  moment  in 
New  York,  the  next  in  Pittsburg !"  "  What  is  this  infernal 
noise  ?"  AVe  are  in  the  "  Petroleum  Exchange."  Hear  the  growl- 
ing of  the  Bears  and  the  bellowing  of  the  Bulls  !     It  is  not  war 


WAGERS  IN  OIL. 


155 


between  England  and  Russia.  No:  it  is  the  roaring  of  gas  and 
the  eruption  of  oil.  Whenever  a  disturbing  shock  comes  from 
some  oil-well  which  spouts  lively  or  dries  up  speedily,  what  an 
uproar  ensues  !  A  is  carrying  bundles  of  this  stock,  and  B  dis- 
poses of  his  load.  Values  change,  and  stocks  break  with  every 
new  discovery  or  disaster.  Bankruptcy  depends  on  so  many  more 
haxrtis per  day  from  West  Virginia,  and  affluence  from  so  many 
less  per  day  from  Pennsylvania.     In  one  day,  on  the   Pittsburg 


TEHERAM 

MAP  OF  THE  CASPIAN   OIL   REGION. 

Board,  the  transactions  include  13,000,000  barrels,  and  with  all 
the  chances  of  rouge  et  noir  at  Monaco.  This  beats  the  feats  of 
the  old  enchanters. 

In  all  these  vicissitudes  little  account  is  taken  of  the  14,000 
square  miles  in  this  Russian  territory,  in  and  around  Baku, 
whither  we  can  "  wish"  ourselves  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 
Little  is  thought,  in  this  desperate  gambling,  of  the  strata  which 
we  see  with  enchanted  eye  :  starting  from  the  Crimea,  under- 


156  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

lying  Caucasia — the  land  of  our  ancestral  race  and  language — 
and  the  Caspian  Sea,  to  the  vicinage  of  Baku,  where  the  soil 
absorbs  the  oil  as  if  it  were  a  huge  sponge  to  be  squeezed,  and 
where  20,000  acres  alone  of  petroleum  land  have  furnished  1,000,- 
000  tons  of  oil  annually.  Here  we  are  in  the  "  Black  Califor- 
nia," as  the  Russians  call  it,  which  furnishes  fuel  for  locomotive 
and  steamer,  and  kerosene  for  Central  Asia  and  Europe.  The 
wells  are  elevated,  so  that  gravity  can  run  the  crude  article  into 
Baku  for  refinement  and  export. 

One  fountain  at  Droojba,  in  September,  1883,  spouted  two 
million  gallons  per  day  into  the  air  300  feet,  from  a  depth  of  574 
feet,  while  the  adjacent  wells  pursued  their  usual  avocations  un- 
disturbed. The  immensity  of  this  product  does  not  give  you  an 
idea  of  the  reserve  in  the  Caucasus.  I  mention  these  instances,  as 
a  fact  and  a  warning,  to  account  for  the  inrush  of  this  oil  into  mar- 
kets where  once  our  own  petroleum  prevailed.  No  wonder  the  oil 
sells  cheaper  at  its  source  and  in  the  neighboring  countries!  There 
is  a  large  margin  for  profit,  because  of  its  cheapness.  No  won- 
der the  market  in  the  Turkish  empire,  which  was  once  all  ours,  is 
now  divided  between  Russia  and  America! 

A  dissertation  upon  Oriental  petroleum  would  be  wanting  in 
the  poetic  and  pietistic  elements,  if  we  should  forget  Lalla 
Rookh  and  the  Fire  Worshippers.  Were  not  the  magi  located  at 
Baku  ?  Was  it  not  here  that  the  sacred  fire  of  Zoroaster,  guarded 
by  the  magi,  burned  for  thousands  of  years  ?  It  was  only  once 
extinguished — at  least  so  say  the  learned  Mahometans —  in  the 
month  of  April,  a.  d.  569.  What  happened  then  ?  Amina,  the 
beautiful  wife  of  Abdallah,  for  whom,  when  he  married  her,  two 
hundred  virgins  of  the  tribe  of  Koreish  died  of  broken  hearts — 
then  gave  birth  to  Mahomet !  Without  a  pang  of  travail,  but 
with  many  portents,  the  prophet  enters  the  world  !  A  celestial 
light  glorifies  the  Oriental  heavens  !  Lakes  become  dry  ;  the 
Tigris  overflows  ;  the  palace  of  Persia  shakes,  and  its  towers  top- 
ple. And  more:  all  the  idols  of  the  world  fall  down  ;  the  angels 
pitch  the  devil  into  the  deep  sea,  and  the  fires  of  Baku  and  the 
Parsees  are  extinguished  ! 

The  Mahometan  yet  calls  the  enemy  of  his  faith  Giaour  ;  from 
an  Arab  word,  Guebir,  signifying  a  fire-worshipper.  We  might 
infer  that  the  Mahometan  world  would  not  be  partial  to  the  Baku 
oil,  in  preference  to  the  American. 


PRODIGIES  IN  PETROLEUM.  1 5  7 

Observe,  as  we  pass  up  and  down  the  Bosporus,  at  the  nar- 
rowest gateway  flanked  by  the  grand  towers  of  Roumeli-Hissar 
on  the  one  side,  and  Anatoli-Hissar  on  the  other,  that  row  of 
small  houses  on  the  Asiatic  side,  of  uniform  shape.  What 
are  they?  Nothing,  in  a  romantic  way.  It  is  not  here  that 
Darius  crossed  on  his  bridge  of  boats.  It  is  not  here  that  Richard 
the  Lion-Hearted  was  imprisoned.  These  are  unhistoric,  practi- 
cal petroleum  depositories  !  They  are,  I  assure  you,  the  archi- 
tectural results  of  much  diplomacy  and  some  selfishness. 

By  the  regulations  of  Constantinople,  all  vessels  loaded  with 
petroleum  arriving  from  any  quarter  must  anchor  at  this  storage 
d^pot  at  Pacha  Bagtche,  which  is  midway  between  the  Black 
Sea  and  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  This  depot  was  originally  estab- 
lished by  the  Ottoman  government  as  a  measure  of  safety.  It 
was  intended  to  prevent  the  accumulation  of  large  quantities  of 
petroleum  in  the  city  and  suburbs. 

Petroleum  from  the  United  States  comes  mostly  in  Italian 
sailing-vessels  carrying  from  12,000  to  30,000  cases.  The  article 
from  Batoum,  intended  for  local  consumption,  is  frequently  con- 
veyed in  small  sailing-vessels  carrying  500  to  1,000  cases,  or  a 
proportionate  quantity  in  barrels.  They  anchor  at  this  depot,  and 
are  allowed  to  sell  their  cargoes  from  the  deck,  paying  no  ware- 
house charges.  If  ships  coming  from  the  United  States  wish  to 
avail  themselves  of  this. privilege,  they  have  the  right  to  do  so  ; 
but  it  would  be  a  manifest  disadvantage  for  them  to  pay  demur- 
rage for  the  long  period  it  would  require  to  dispose  of  their  large 
cargoes. 

No  vessels  of  any  nationality  loaded  with  petroleum  are  allowed 
to  discharge  at  the  wharves  of  Constantinople;  all,  without  distinc- 
tion, being  obliged  to  go  to  the  depots  at  Pacha  Bagtche  for  this 
purpose.  These  stores  were,  in  the  first  instance,  built  by  the  gov- 
ernment, and  offered  few  conveniences  for  the  rapid  discharge  of 
ships  and  the  delivery  of  the  petroleum  for  consumption.  Sub- 
sequently, a  concession  was  given  to  Samni  Bey  and  his  con- 
sorts to  build  larger  and  safer  stores,  and  a  wharf  where  vessels 
could  lie  and  discharge  much  more  rapidly,  and  without  the 
expense  of  lighterage.  For  these  additional  facilities  and  econ- 
omy in  time  and  money,  the  tariff  for  storage  was  increased, 
which  led  to  much  discussion  and  correspondence.  It  was  finally 
reduced  to  the  rate  which  the  American  Legation  and  the  Russian 


I  5  8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Embassy  were  of  opinion  would  be  just  and  sufficient  So  it  has 
remained,  but  not  with  any  formal  consent  on  their  part. 
\%  Boats  carrying  fifty  cases,  or  fifteen  barrels,  convey  the 
petroleum  to  the  city.  Many  of  these  boats  belong  to  the  im- 
porters. They  are  of  uniform  build  and  size.  They  are  col- 
ored blue,  and  assist  to  make  the  water  scenery  of  the  beauti- 
ful strait,  with  its  Shirket  ferries,  poetic  caiques,  antique  Norse 
yechts  of  graceful  prow,  and  enormous  Austrian  and  Russian 
steamers  a  picture  in  both  oil  and  water  !  These  azure  boats 
are  built  of  iron.  Only  a  limited  quantity  of  petroleum  is  allowed 
to  be  received  in  the  stores  in  town.  The  capital  of  the  land  of 
Kismet — where  it  might  be  supposed  that  predestination  was  a 
prevalent  doctrine — takes  many  precautions  for  human  safety, 
irrespective  of  the  fateful  genii  of  the  Koran. 

We  are  glad  to  know  that  there  is  no  discrimination  in  Tur- 
key against  American  petroleum,  whether  at  the  depot  or  else- 
where ;  at  least  by  the  Ottoman  government.  If  any  facilities 
have  been  granted  to  the  Russian  trade  which  have  not  been 
equally  extended  to  ours,  no  complaint  has  been  made  at  the 
Consulate  or  Legation.  Importers  of  the  American  article  are  suf- 
ficiently awake  to  their  own  interests  to  promptly  protest  against 
discrimination. 

The  greatest  local  obstacles  of  our  trade  in  Turkey  and  in  the 
islands  of  the  archipelago,  are  the  frauds  connected  with  the  sale 
of  the  American  petroleum.  The  **  Danaos,"  whom  Virgil  feared, 
when  bearing  gifts,  are  generally  the  cunning  culprits.  They  sub- 
stitute the  poorer  Russian  article  in  our  American  boxes  and 
cans,  and  sell  it  for  the  better  American.  But  such  impositions 
cannot  last  long.     They  soon  find  their  remedy. 

What  a  useful  utensil  for  every  purpose,  here  in  the  East,  cul^ 
nary  and  otherwise,  is  the  square  Amencan  tin  can  in  which  the 
oil  ;s  imported!  You  see  it  where  that  house  is  building;  it  holds 
the  water  to  mix  the  mortar.  You  see  it  in  the  vineyard  up  there 
on  the  hill  ;  with  it  the  vine-grower  waters  his  plants.  You  see 
it  on  the  hillside,  on  the  rocks,  and  in  the  meadows  ;  at  the 
**  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Asia  and  Europe,  where  those  gay  hanoums 
congregate,  arrayed  in  their  many-hued  silk  feridjies,  to  coquet 
and  gossip.  It  holds  the  water  from  which  their  sherbet  is  made. 
On  isle  and  mainland,  in  city  and  country,  wherever  we  '*  wish  " 
ourselves,  the  American  tiij  can  passes  current,  taking  the  place 


FOUNTAINS  AND  THE  OIL  CAN. 


159 


of  wooden  and  tin  buckets.  I  have  even  seen  it,  in  its  debased, 
oxidized  condition,  used  to  repair  fences  upon  the  hilly  turnpike, 
•on  the  road  to  the  Sultan's  palace  at  Yildiz.  A  few  days  ago  I 
saw  a  dozen  watermen,  upon  the  isle  of  Prinkipo,  using  it  to  fill 
the  casks  upon  their  donkeys. 

It  is  being  used — this  uncanny  can — to  revolutionize  the  taste 
•of  the  Orient,  thus  : 

Throughout  Constantinople  and  Turkey,  the  principle  of  life, 
water,  is  everywhere  recognized  as  a  part  of  the  religion  of  the 
people.  Fountains  of  exquisite  beauty  display,  in  gold  letters  on 
an  azure  ground,  along  with  their  clear  lympth,  the  legend  of  the 
Koran,  "  By  water  everything  lives."  There  are  public  fount- 
ains established  by  individual  piety,  street  fountains  for  miscel- 
laneous drinking,  and  fountains  in  the  mosque  courts  for  puri- 
fication before  prayer.  Some  of  these — as  the  elaborate  one  at 
the  seraglio  gate — are  of  marble.  They  are  finely  decorated; 
some  are  carved  and  colored,  and  some  are  gilded. .  The  r9of  is 
a  series  of  domes.  They  are  of  all  forms  and  sizes.  They  are 
■called  "Well  of  Paradise,"  Sacred  "Fountain  of  Mecca,"  or 
some  other  poetic  name.  They  are  visited  by  women — who  bear 
the  amphora  of  the  antique  world  ?  Oh  !  no.  The  Ottoman 
hanount  of  Stamboul  bears  to  the  fountain  the  American  petro- 
leum can  !  She  is  in  strange  contrast  with  the  graceful  Greek 
nymph  of  our  classic  fancy. 

If  the  women  of  other  countries  would  observe  the  mode,  or 
pursue  the  practice,  of  walking  over  rough  and  hilly  ground,  with 
jars  or  buckets  of  water  neatly  balanced  on  their  heads,  there 
would  result  quite  an  aesthetic  development.  More  graces  would 
Jiover  around  their  forms.  The  superb  carriage  of  the  Spanish, 
Greek  and  Egyptian — I  may  say  Oriental — women,  is  due  to  the 
long-continued  habitude  of  going,  like  Rachel,  to  the  well.  I 
have  seen  such  living  pictures  of  the  Nubian  women  as  would 
shame  the  ramshackle,  stunted,  awkward  woman  in  more  civilized 
societies. 

Our  artist  has  endeavored  to  make  the  contrast  between  the 
ancient  nymph  and  the  modern  female  of  the  fountain.  There  is 
not  so  much  grace  in  the  costume  of  the  modern  as  in  that  of  the 
ancient.  This  is  owing  to  the  clumsy  feridjie.  Still,  she  is 
€rect  and  stately,  and  until  she  begins  to  carry  her  can  by 
a  handle,  and  not  upon  her  head,  her  pose  will  not  be  demoral- 


1 60  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 


-^  3;  <=  >C^  <'=-- 


NYMPHS  OF  THE  FOUNTAIN.  \  6 1 

ized.  But  this  change  in  our  can  has  begun.  The  descend- 
ants of  Jacob,  forgetting  how  Rachel  looked  when  she  was  wooed 
and  won  at  the  well,  have  begun  to  tinker  with  the  can.  The 
sketch  which  I  present  is  from  an  oil-painting  which  I  found 
in  General  Cluseret's  room,  near  Constantinople.  The  General, 
after  fighting  all  over  the  world  for  freedom,  and  after  the 
death  of  the  Commune — whose  history  he  has  just  published  in 
Paris — was  exiled  from  France.  He  then  took  part  with  the 
Turk.  When  the  big  wars  were  over  here,  he  turned  to  the  easel. 
The  sketch  of  the  Hebrew  soldering  the  American  can  is  one 
of  the  children  of  his  art. 

Meanwhile,  the  world  demands  more  light.  The  lamp  holds 
out  to  burn  in  realms  that  never  knew  aught  but  natural  illumina- 
tion— a  farthing  dip  or  a  little  wick  in  a  small  vessel  of  grease.  It 
demands  cheap  illumination,  which  means  cheap  transportation  ; 
and  if  the  Orient  can  furnish  her  own  oil, the  day  is  not  distant  when 
the  American  article  will  have  a  limited  territory  for  its  market. 

Still,  as  the  competition  grows  sharp,  new  sources  spring  from 
our  own  earth,  and  along  with  them  the  remarkable  natural  gas 
which  Ohio  and  other  localities  are  using  for  every  emergency  of 
mechanical  energy  and   domestic  life. 

The  figures  which  show  the  magnitude  of  our  oil  and  gas 
business  are  majestic  "  columns"  of  grandeur  and  pride  : 

Statistics  show  that  53,000  wells  have  been  drilled  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  York  since  the  discovery  of  petroleum,  at  a 
cost  of  $200,000,000.  These  wells  have  produced  310,000,000 
barrels  of  oil,  which  were  sold  at  the  wells  for  $500,000,000. 
This  represented  a  profit  to  the  producer  of  $300,000,000. 
The  amount  of  oil  exported  is  placed  at  6,231,102,923  gallons. 
In  the  pool  in  one  county  in  western  Pennsylvania  alone, 
$3,200,000  has  been  expended  in  machinery  and  drilling.  This 
does  not  include  the  many  millions  that  are  represented  there 
in  the  natural  gas  industry.  Independent  of  the  oil  business, 
there  is  about  $50,000,000  in  natural  gas  plants  in  that  State. 
What  this  and  other  States  may  show  when  the  eleventh  cen- 
sus is  taken,  confounds  anticipation,  and  distances  the  Caspian 
and  its  wonders. 

To  what  uses,  besides  that  of  light,  may  not  this  element  be 
dedicated  !  It  is  already  taking  the  place  of  coal.  Twelve  bar- 
rels of  oil  in  a  tank  on  the  tender  ran  a  Pennsylvania  locomotive 


1 62  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 


THE  HEBREW  TDCKERING   AN   AMERICAN  PETROLEUM  CAN. 


OIL  AS  FUEL.  l6^ 

ii6  miles.  The  residuum  of  petroleum,  as  a  substitute  for  coal, 
Is  just  coming  into  use  in  America.  In  this  we  are  copying  the 
carriers  of  Baku.  Three  years  ago,  on  the  Russian  railroads  in 
Asia,  oil  was  used  as  fuel;  then,  a  year  later,  its  residuum;  then 
it  fired  up  the  300  steamboats  on  the  Caspian  and  the  Volga. 
The  use  extended  to  Swedish  and  Egyptian  railroads  and  facto- 
ries, at  a  great  saving. 

The  refineries  of  Baku  and  the  factories  of  Odessa  gave  up 
English  coal  for  the  cheaper  fuel.  One  ton  of  it  was  equal  to 
two  of  coal.  The  North  Caucasus  Railway  to  Novorossisk  has 
opened  new  outlets  for  the  marvelous  factor  among  the  forces, 
and  from  a  new  field  upon  the  Black  Sea.  This  oil  residuum  has 
been  used  upon  our  Pacific  coast  by  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad. 
It  saves  forty  per  cent.  The  saving  on  the  Swedish  railroads  is 
from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent.  This  new  element  has  hitherto 
been  wasted.  Now,  it  is  selling  at  Baku  for  ten  cents  a  ton,  and 
it  is  produced  there  at  the  rate  of  a  million  tons  a  year.  What 
will  the  world  of  navigation  say  when,  by  burning  it,  thq  steam- 
ship which  wrestles- with  the  ocean  displaces  2,500  tons  of  coal 
with  1,000  tons  of  residuum,  while  the  latter  only  occupies  the 
.«pace  of  600  tons  of  coal  ?  Will  it  not  revolutionize  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  seas  ? 

In  view  of  such  eventualities  it  may  not  be  out  of  place 
to  detail  some  particulars  of  this  trade  and  its  regulation, 
together  with  such  facts  as  bear  upon  this  industry  in  the  coun- 
tries of  the  East.  While  it  may  not  be  an  entertaining  Diversion, 
it  may  interest  the  utilitarian  American. 

The  Russian  petroleum  has  proximity  to  the  Turkish  markets. 
That  is  an  advantage  which  no  tariff  can  affect  or  ameliorate. 
Transportation  is  protection  pro  tanto,  and  sometimes  prohibition. 
It  has  not  yet  reached  the  latter  stage  here,  as  against  our  Amer- 
ican product.  The  Baku  oil  is  not  as  rich  as  the  American,  So 
it  is  said  by  our  American  traders,  though  vehemently  disputed 
by  the  Russians.  Once,  when  I  was  spouting  a  little  jet  of  rheto- 
ric at  the  Commencement  of  the  American  (Robert)  College,  I 
happened  to  say  : 

"As  the  olive-trees  of  the  academy  furnished  their  purest 
oil  for  the  victors  of  the  Grecian  festivals,  so  this  institution 
furnishes  no  crude  article,  like  that  from  Baku,  wherewith 
to  strengthen  the  wrestlers  in  the  intellectual   arena  of  these 


1 64  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

elder  lands.  Under  the  direction  of  your  energetic  president. 
Dr.  Washburne,  and  his  American  associates,  your  lamps  are  filled, 
and  burning  with  the  white  light  of  the  refined  American  article!"" 
My  wife  was  sitting  in  the  audience,  next  to  Mme.  Onou,  the 
accomplished  wife  of  the  Russian  Chancellor  of  the  Legation. 
She  quickly  said,  in  a  quick,  crispy  whisper  : 

"  Ah,  madame,  your  husband  is  making  figures  of  speech, 
not  figures  of  statistics!  Russia  is  ahead  on  quality,  and  by 
nearness  on  quantity,  and  will  have  the  market !" 

"How  did  Mrs.  Cox  reply?"  In  French,  of  course.  Is  it 
not  the  language  of  diplomacy?  "But  what  did  she  say?'* 
She  passed  it  off  lightly,  as  became  the  subject  and  the  occasion. 

Madame  Onou  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding,  I  think  that 
the  Baku  article  contains  only  thirty-five  per  cent,  to  our  sixty- 
five  or  seventy.  Therefore,  if  I  am  correct,  the  Russian  will  be 
used  mostly  for  lubricating  purposes.  But  there  is  room  for 
doubt,  because  its  low  price,  its  unlimited  quantity,  its  cheapness 
of  transportation,  and  its  new  refining  processes,  now  being- 
adapted  from  the  American,  are  attracting  attention  from  the 
enterprising  capital  of  Sweden,  Germany  and  Russia. 

The  magnitude  of  the  business  at  Baku  may  glut  these 
Turkish  markets,  if  not  others  ;  and  unless  the  "  Standard  "  and 
other  companies  either  risk  and  make  losses  to  "  hold  their  own," 
or  buy  out  Baku  physically,  from  the  nadir,  whence  comes  the  oil, 
to  the  zenith  toward  which  it  spouts,  America  may  have  to  open 
fresh  wells  of  petroleum,  seek  new  fields  for  her  business,  or  gc^ 
into  liquidation. 

A  London  journal  has  a  correspondent  at  St.  Petersburg,  who 
places  the  total  quantity  of  raw  naphtha  pumped  or  received 
from  the  Baku  wells  at  2,000,000  tons  for  1885 — that  is  400,- 
000,000  gallons.  Of  this,  500,000  tons  of  kerosene  have  been 
distilled,  and  sent  from  Baku  alone.  Two-thirds  of  this  goes  inta 
the  many-mouthed  Volga,  at  Astrakhan,  upon  flotillas,  which  are 
fed  and  propelled  by  the  oil  that  they  carry  in  their  tanks. 
Although  the  Volga  is  shallow,  the  boats  are  made  to  suit  the 
navigation.  Passing  the  shoals,  they  run  to  their  depots  at 
Tzaritzin,  Kazan,  Nijni,  and  Reybinsk.  The  Volga,  at  the  first- 
named  place,  is  not  far  from  the  Don.  By  many  highways  and 
byways,  by  rail  and  cistern-wagons,  the  product  is  distributed 
to  all  parts  of   Russia,  to  the  Baltic  ports,  and  thence  to  other 


OIL  STA  TISTICS  OF  BAKU.  165 

lands.  Hamburg  is  already  a  grand  depot  for  the  Russian  petro- 
leum, with  refineries  at  Riga  and  elsewhere.  This  is  a  rival  of  no 
mean  proportions.  It  would  be  vain  to  ignore  it.  The  oil  is  sent 
in  bulk.  No  casks  are  used  except  to  foreign  ports.  It  is  thought 
that  cistern-vessels  will  soon  be  used  to  run  the  oil  across  seas. 
One-third  of  this  Baku  product  goes  through  Batoum — a  free  port 
no  more.  It  goes  by  rail  to  the  Black  Sea,  thence  it  reaches  the 
Danube.  It  finds  welcome  at  Odessa,  Constantinople  and  Mar- 
seilles; and,  via  the  Suez  Canal,  it  is  on  its  way  to  the  extremest 
East. 

The  petroleum  people  at  Baku  cannot  expect  to  be  above  the 
peril  of  bankruptcy,  until  they  complete  the  construction  of  their 
pipe-line  from  the  Caspian  to  the  Black  Sea.  This  they  will  do 
in  time.  Nevertheless,  the  exportation  from  Baku  is  increasing. 
The  improved  methods  of  carriage  and  refining  have  enlarged 
the  importation  from  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  gallons 
in  1885,  to  three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  million  gallons  in 
1886.     Since  1883  it  has  increased  fivefold. 

**  Naphtha  is  a  great  desideratum  among  people  where  the  for- 
ests above  ground  have  been  destroyed,  and  where  the  forests 
which  have  been  carbonized  for  millions  of  years  beneath  ground 
have  not  yet  been  developed." 

Yes,  I  thoroughly  agree  with  the  statement.  Italy  and  other 
•countries  are  studying  closely  the  Russian  naphtha  industry.  I 
should  not  be  surprised  to  see  the  Italian  Navy,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  reports  from  Baku,  substitute  naphtha  for  coal. 
But  this  will  not  be  done  until  the  pipe-line  has  been  constructed 
and  the  burning  of  the  article  becomes  less  dangerous. 

Would  my  reader  know  how  much  petroleum  comes  to  this  port 
of  Constantinople  and  the  Mediterranean  from  Baku  ?  I  have  here 
a  statement  from  the  ist  of  January  to  the  30th  of  September, 
1885.  It  is  as  follows  :  In  Italian  vessels,  6,334  tons  ;  in  Austrian 
vessels,  3,747  tons;  and  in  Greek  vessels,  3,173  tons — being  a 
total  of  13,254  tons. 

Upon  the  application  of  our  Consul-General  here,  Mr.  Heap, 
the  Russian  Consul-General  did  not  consider  it  expedient  to 
inform  him  of  the  quantity  of  oil  exported  under  their  flag  from 
Batoum  during  that  period,  so  that  the  statement  given  is  incom- 
plete. It  would  be  safe  to  add  at  least  33  per  cent,  to  the  amount 
furnished  by  the  other  three  Consulates — Italian,  Austrian  and 


1 66  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Greek.  Most  of  the  petroleum  arriving  here  from  Batoum  in 
Russian  vessels  is  intended  for  consumption  in  this  market.  That 
exported  in  Italian,  Austrian  and  Greek  vessels  is  about  equally- 
divided  between  this  and  Mediterranean  ports.  There  were  256,- 
870  cases  of  petroleum  imported  from  the  United  States  in  1885. 
The  wholesale  price  of  American  petroleum  is  generally  from  3. 
to  4  piastres  (13  to  18  cents)  per  case  higher  than  the  Russian. 

"  When  and  where  was  petroleum  first  discovered  ?  What  is 
its  antiquity  and  history  ?  " 

Petroleum  is  not  by  any  means  peculiar  to  our  time  or  to 
America.  It  is  as  old  as  the  earth,  and  its  development  antedates 
the  "Cities  of  the  Plain."  That  it  should  be  found  in  Asia  was 
not  a  surprise.  That  it  should  be  found  in  such  quantities  and 
so  easy  of  transit  on  the  Caspian  and  Black  seas  was  surprising 
to  our  speculators.  That  it  was  recently  found  on  the  Red  Sea 
in  Egypt  ought  not  to  have  surprised  anyone.  The  wells  near 
Jebel  Zeit,  on  that  coast,  170  miles  south  of  Suez,  were  reported 
upon  by  M.  Petit,  a  French  civil  engineer,  at  the  request  of 
Nubar  Pasha,  the  Prime  Minister,  as  early  as  1883,  with  speci- 
mens and  analysis.  Much  money  was  then  spent  to  develop  the 
sulphur  and  oil  enterprises  at  this  point,  under  the  Bassano  con- 
cession. It  had  a  steamer  and  a  syndicate,  but  it  failed  :  first,, 
because  of  the  intolerable  climate  ;  second,  for  lack  of  water,, 
and,  third,  because  of  remoteness  of  provisions.  In  other  words,, 
even  the  cheap  Arab  labor  of  those  parts  could  not  over- 
come the  local  and  climatic  disadvantages.  In  September, 
1884,  a  Belgian  mining  engineer,  M.  Debay,  was  sent  there  to 
report.  He  gave  favorable  accounts.  Under  his  direction,  thirty- 
skilled  Belgian  workmen  were  sent  to  the  place.  Finding  neither 
vegetation,  habitation  nor  water,  his  little  colony  had  a  harsh 
time.  He,  however,  bored  away  until  February,  1885,  just 
before  his  contract  expired.  Then  suddenly  the  oil  rose  two- 
metres,  or  more  than  seventy-nine  and  one-half  inches  above  the 
sea-level.  This  led  to  the  latest  exploration,  in  which  Egypt 
speculated  largely  in  connection  with  her  debts  and  resources. 

Now  it  is  thought  that  the  new  appliances  for  pumping  and 
the  better  organization  of  the  industry  may  overcome  the  former 
obstacles.  When  I  was  in  Egypt,  in  March,  1886,  rumors  were 
rife  of  the  extraordinary  yield  from  these  Jebel  wells  ;  but  they 
have  not  been  realized,  or,  if  realized,  published.     There  seems 


EG  YPTIAN  PE  TROLEUM.  167 

to  be  a  lull  in  the  bruit  by  which  they  were  heralded.  The  son 
of  the  premier,  Nubar  Pasha,  together  with  other  engineers, 
including  an  American  friend,  Mr.  Mitchell,  a  geologist,  whom  I 
met  at  Cairo,  returned  from  an  expedition  to  the  "suspected" 
spots  on  the  2  2d  of  March.  They  reported  that  petroleum 
undoubtedly  exists  ;  that  the  geological  formation  of  the  country 
is  favorable  to  the  existence  of  larger  quantities  at  lower  depths  ; 
that  the  store  of  oil  is  generally  distributed  over  a  large  area  in 
the  neighborhood  ;  that  under  existing  unfavorable  conditions  a 
single  source  yields  about  two  tons  daily  ;  that  the  specific 
gravity  is  88,  and  that  the  spot  is  easily  accessible  from  the  coast, 
where  there  is  good  anchorage. 

There  are  many  other  evidences  in  the  East  of  the  existence 
of  petroleum.  The  late  engineer  of  the  government  works  at 
Cairo,  Mr.  Garwood,  in  a  letter  which  I  have  seen,  suggested  to 
those  who  are  interested  in  Egyptian  petroleum  to  make  a  diligent 
search  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Helouan  sulphur  baths.  They 
are  about  twenty  miles  from  Cairo,  or  in  the  wady,  or  valley, 
near  the  petrified  forest,  about  the  same  distance-  from  Cairo. 
Oil  may  be  struck,  and  then  worked  at  a  far  more  remunerative 
figure  than  it  ever  will  be  from  Jebel  Zeit. 

"  Was  it  from  some  long  since  disused  source  at  Helouan 
that  the  mummy-cloths,  saturated  with  petroleum,  were  prepared 
for  those  who  found  a  last  resting-place  in  the  necropolis  of 
Memphis,  which  is  not  a  great  distance  from  Helouan?" 

This  query  indicates  that  preparation  of  the  dead  for  their 
immortalization  on  earth  must  have  called  into  ancient  use 
petroleum  in  some  of  its  forms  for  this  pious  purpose. 

What  possibilities  or  probabilities  there  may  be  in  the  Orient 
for  the  production  of  petroleum  are  not  yet  fully  ascertained. 
They  are  in  the  region  of  conjecture.  An  intelligent  writer  from 
the  northeast  corner  of  the  Mediterranean,  pictured  in  a  Stam- 
boul  journal  the  other  day  the  opulence  of  that  district  of 
Cilicia,  as  well  in  mines  of  coal,  silver,  copper,  iron  and  galena 
as,  probably,  in  petroleum.  A  railroad  has  been  in  part  made 
to  Mersina,  the  port  of  Tarsus — Paul's  old  city  of  education. 
The  rivers  on  that  coast  I  have  visited.  The  Qoast  on  the  south 
shore  and  west  of  the  Gulf  of  Iskanderoon,  as  I  bear  witness,  is 
low,  with  lakes  and  rivers  where  lighters  or  boats  can  be  used. 
Here  was  once  the  garden  of  the  world,  which  had  in   its  circuit 


1 68  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

such  cities  as  Aleppo,  Antioch  and  Tarsus.  It  is  surrounded 
by  splendid  mountain  ranges.  It  produces  wool,  madder,  gums, 
skins,  berries  and  wheat.  These  seek,  even  over  bad  roads,  by 
donkeys,  camels  and  carts,  exportation  to  the  ports  of  Europe 
and  Turkey.  Nor  is  it  marvelous  that  signs  of  petroleum  should 
here  exist.  Perhaps  these  are  surer  signs  than  those  of  Jebel 
Zeit,  on  the  Red  Sea.  Time  will  tell.  There  is  near  by  Tarsus  a 
stream  of  mineral  water  flowing  from  the  cavity  of  a  limestone 
rock.  It  is  rank  with  the  smell  of  bitumen.  The  soil  over  which 
it  passes  is  dark.  It  is  called  "Itch  water,"  for  the  natives  who 
have  that  disease  cover  themselves  with  the  black  muck  and  get 
cured  in  a  brief  time.  This  system  is  commended  for  use  on  the 
Argyle  estate. 

This  stream  is  only  three  hours'  ride  from  Tarsus.  Who 
knows  that  Tarsus  may  not  again  come  to  the  front,  dropping 
the  scales  from  its  sightless  eyes,  and  under  a  new  light  and  less 
itching  give  some  trouble  to  our  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  West 
Virginia  proprietors,  if  not  to  those  of  Jebel  Zeit  or  Baku  ! 

For  the  present  Baku  holds  the  lead  in  the  East.  It  is  spring- 
ing into  immense  importance,  like  its  sister  city  Batoum,  under 
oily  and  Slavonic  auspices.  Although  the  sacred  fire  is  not  now 
worshipped  there,  oil  is.  It  permeates  all  social  and  physical  life. 
Even  the  rubles  are  greasy.  The  dry  streets  are  dampened  with 
the  naphtha.  You  shake  a  man  by  the  hand  ;  your  grip  slips 
before  the  cordiality  is  expressed.  Oil  is  talked  day  and  night — 
at  the  hearth  where  it  cooks  the  meal,  and  at  the  coffee-house 
where  it  is  wagered.  The  steppes  about  the  city  are  arid,  but 
under  them  lie  countless  millions  in  the  sunless  lakes.  The  city 
is  improving  under  these  lubricities.  Gardens  and  parks  are  sup- 
planting the  blackness  with  which  the  town  was  painted  by  the 
subtle  element.  The  old  palace  of  the  Khan,  and  the  winding, 
narrow  streets,  the  strange  Persian  Moslem  women  and  men,  and 
other  features  of  old  Baku,  no  longer  attract  the  tourist.  He  goes 
to  see  oil  spout.     It  is  oil,  oil  everywhere. 

Baku  is  situated  on  a  little  bay  upon  the  west  coast  of  the 
Caspian.  It  has  already  75,000  people  ;  for  its  growth  is  un- 
rivaled in  the  East.  Its  railroad  crosses  a  mountain  3,200  feet 
high,  called  Songame.  This  trans-Caucasian  railway  is  561)^ 
miles  long.  It  runs  by  way  of  the  superb  city  of  Tiflis,  and 
affords  the  tourist  a  view  of  the  grand  scenery  of  that  mountain- 


THE  STAR  IN  THE  EAST. 


169 


land  of  our  earliest  progenitors.  Its  western  terminus  is  at  Ba- 
toum.  Batoum  is  therefore  the  entrepot  of  the  great  trade  of  the 
Caucasus,  and  much  of  the  trade  of  the  Caspian  and  beyond 
The  waters  of  the  Volga,  which  have  their  confluents  almost 
from  Arctic  regions  and  empty  at  Astrakhan,  with  the  Caspian 
for  their  outlet,  the  Don  and  Dnieper,  the  ancient  Tanais  and 
Borysthenes,  as  well  as  the  Danube — all  are  by  the  railroad  con- 
nection made  to  swell  the  importance,  commercial  and  strategical, 
of  Baku,  this  new-born  Oil  City  of  Asia. 

Eastward  the  star  of  empire  takes  its  way.  It  follows  the 
rails  en  route  to  India,  This  iron  way  has  a  greater  function  than 
carrying  oil  for  Russia  or  for  English  traffic  to  and  from  India. 
Although  it  is,  when  made,  to  have  a  longer  reach — say  1,122 
miles  to  Libi,  the  first  railroad  station  in  India — still  it  is  the  old 
route  described  by  Pliny,  from  Cabul  to  India.  It  overleaps  the 
Hindoo-Koosh,  extends  westwardly  to  the  Oxus,  near  Balkh,  and 
thence  down  the  Oxus  to  the  Caspian.  Once  on  the  Caspian,  the 
traffic  which  enters  at  Baku,  as  things  are  ordered,  will,  at 
Batoum,  be  under  Russian  control.  Not  far  from  Baku,  on  the 
trans-Caucasian  railroad,  the  river  Aras  joins  the  Kour.  From 
this  point — say  at  Adji-Cabul  junction — the  future  railroad  will 
proceed  to  Teheran  via  Resht.  The  country  is  rich  in  petroleum 
and  in  soil.  Altogether  it  will  not  be  more  than  550  miles  from 
Adji  to  Teheran.  This  would  bring  Persia  into  the  world. 
These  routes  have  been  surveyed,  and  have  undergone  much 
•discussion.  The  Russians  contemplate  a  great  central  Asian 
railroad.  It  is  to  connect  their  commercial  and  especially  their 
military  communications.  The  Standard  oil  agent,  who  was  here 
on  the  way  to  and  from  Baku,  told  me  that  it  was  impossible  for 
the  outside  world  to  know  the  grandeur  of  the  scale  by  which 
Russia  is  pushing  her  military  power  into  the  heart  of  Asia. 
Troops  he  saw  by  the  thousands,  of  which  no  journal  or  corre- 
spondent takes  notice.  They  are  on  the  constant  advance.  The 
Caucasian  railway  was  built  for  troops  and  their  transportation. 
The  railroad  now  building  from  the  Caspian  to  Tashkend  will 
run  1,100  miles  farther  toward  sunrise.  It  points  unmistakably 
to  the  sealed  wonderland  of  Thibet,  toward  which  the  English 
are  pushing  their  so-called  peaceful  embassy  (h  la  Burmah,  I 
suppose)  under  Macaulay  and  his  commercial  travelers. 

To  make  these  connections  profitable  the  Russian  government 


I  70  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

subsidizes.  She  is  making  a  new  Caspian  port  at  Mikhailoffsky^ 
to  overcome  the  shallowness  of  the  present  harbor  and  give  access 
to  vessels  of  large  tonnage,  and  to  economize  in  the  cost  of  reship- 
ment.  Money  and  time  are  lavished  for  the  magnificence  and 
munificence  of  Russia  in  aggrandizing  her  interests,  martial  and 
commercial,  on  the  Caspian.  In  all  probability  Persia  will  become 
a  mere  dependency,  soon  to  be  bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  car 
of  the  autocrat,  whose  splendid  visions  of  an  almost  universal 
empire  are  fast  being  realized  in  these  seats  and  lands  of  ancient 
renown. 

" But  what  connection  has  this  with  petroleum?"  Quite  as 
much  as  to-day  has  with  to-morrow.  It  is  the  prelude  of  great 
events.  To-morrow — "new  style,"  the  17th  of  July,  or  "old 
style,"  the  4th  of  July — Batoum  ceases  to  be  a  free  port. 
After  that  date  all  merchandise  arriving  there  pays  the  usual 
duties  levied  in  all  Russian  ports. 

"  Well,  what  of  this  ?  What  is  its  meaning  ?  What  is  it  to  us  ? " 

The  P'ourth  of  July  is  not  a  good  day  to  place  restraints  on 
freedom,  even  in  Russian  *'  style."  This  restraint  is  not  merely 
an  economic  measure.  It  is  not  intended  altogether  to  check 
smuggling  or  to  collect  revenue.  Nor  is  it,  as  Russia  says,  an 
advantage  to  the  naphtha  trade  merely,  or  to  the  merchants  of 
Baku  and  its  vicinity.  It  is  a  deliberate  act  of  Russia  in  deroga- 
tion of  the  fifty-ninth  article  of  the  Berlin  treaty.  This  article 
was  made  on  the  urgency  of  Bismarck  and  Disraeli  to  avert  war. 
Although  insignificant  in  itself,  it  may  be  the  cloud,  "  no  bigger 
than  a  man's  hand,"  charged  with  electricity  to  set  not  only 
diplomacy  to  buzzing,  but  Krupp  to  booming.  On  the  horizon 
it  seems  like  summer  lightning ;  but  it  may  be  charged  with  a 
thunderbolt.  What,  after  all,  and  in  view  of  recent  developments,, 
is  the  Berlin  treaty  to  Russia,  or  to  the  Powers  ?  An  elastic 
string  to  be  stretched  by  the  strongest ! 

When  I  was  first  in  the  Orient,  Batoum  was  known  as  a  petty^ 
port,  and  safe  in  the  wintry  weather  for  quite  a  number  of  ships. 
It  had  a  bazaar,  it  had  some  coffee-houses,  a  khan,  or  tavern,, 
some  few  private  houses,  and  a  mosque,  all  built  of  wood.  It 
was  then  in  Turkish  territory,  but  near  the  boundary.  Its  people 
belonged  to  the  Georgian  branch  of  the  Caucaso-Thibetan  race. 
It  was  coveted  by  Russia  ;  but  it  was  nobly  defended  against  her. 
It  was,  however,  acquired  by  Russia  in  1878,  not  by  conquest, 


BATOUM  AND  THE  BERLIN  TREATY. 


171 


but  by  treaty,  and  on  certain  conditions.  It  is  near  the  ancient 
seats  of  Grecian  and  Roman,  and  later,  of  Genoese  adventure  and 
commerce.  It  is  the  readiest  point  of  communication  with  Persia, 
Georgia  and  Armenia.  Although  it  can  never  be  the  rival  of 
Erzeroum,  with  its  half-million  of  souls  and  immense  trafiSc,  yet 
with  the  railroad  terminus  and  the  oil  trade  it  bids  fair  to  be 
quite  a  rival,  not  only  in  Eastern  trade,  but  in  our  own  petroleum 
business.  .Under  Russian  auspices,  in  some  measure,  it  is 
already  the  rival  of  Samsoun,  a  southern  Turkish  port,  and  of 
Trebizond,  a  southeastern  Turkish  port  on  the  Black  Sea. 

By  the  Berlin  treaty  of  1878  Russia  acquired  Batoum.  It  is 
not  a  sanitarium,  for  fevers  are  there.  But,  notwithstanding^ 
Russia  quietly  went  to  work  to  fortify  it  as  soon  as  she  acquired 
it.  She  fortified  without  protest,  Turkey  was  not  in  a  condition 
to  protest.  The  other  Powers  were  oblivious  or  careless.  The 
fortification  was  accomplished.  It  was  a  part  of  the  plan  of  resur- 
recting the  old  Russian  naval  power  on  the  Black  Sea. 

It  was  followed  by  a  defiant  destruction  of  a  clause  of 
the  Berlin  treaty.  That  clause,  the  59th,  made  the  cession 
of  Batoum  to  Russia  dependent  on  its  being  a  free  port. 
Russia  declares,  upon  her  own  responsibility,  without  deigning 
to  consult  the  other  six  * '  signatories  '  to  the  treaty,  that  Batoum 
must  change  its  commercial  character,  and  be  a  Russian  city, 
under  Russian  tariffs  and  exactions.  It  is  due  to  truth  to  say 
that  the  Russian  government  does  not  pretend  to  justify  its  noti- 
fication about  the  free  port  of  Batoum  on  the  ground  of  the  faith, 
of  treaties  ;  she  places  the  matter  on  the  ground  of  commercial 
convenience  and  interest. 

The  railway  over  the  Caucasus,  and  the  trade  between  England 
and  Persia,  she  contends,  have  altered  the  circumstances,  and, 
therefore,  she  no  longer  uses  Batoum  as  her  emporium.  Besides, 
the  oil  interest  demands  thai  Batoum  should  no  longer  be  free. 
But  will  the  oil  men  relish  an  edict  which  adds  to  their  burdens  a 
customs  tax  on  their  machinery  ? 

Suppose  that  this  does  not  affect  Turkish  trade  ;  suppose 
France,  Austria  and  Germany,  and  even  Italy,  do  stand  indifferent, 
saying  that  this  is  too  small  a  thing  about  which  to  risk  a  quarrel  ; 
suppose  England  is  left  without  an  ally  among  the  "signatories," 
and  that  the  fortification  is  complete — what  does  Russia  care  for 
English  or  possible  Italian  protests  ?    Nearly  all  of  the  trade  of 


172 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


Batoum  that  is  not  Italian  and  Turkish  is  English.  If  England 
can  afford  to  lose  this  trifling  traffic  and  stand  the  manifestation 
of  Russian  bad  humor,  and  observe  with  serenity  the  exaltation 
of  the  Slavonic  element,  can  she  sit  still  while  Russia  is  seeking 
to  flank  and  outmanoeuvre  her  in  Asia  ? 

Should  these  Russian  demonstrations  in  the  Black  Sea,  as  at 
the  Crimea  and  Batoum,  be  more  than  a  mere  coup  de  th^dtre, 
the  Black  Sea  will  become  a  Russian  lake.  If  this  new  movement 
be  only  a  matter  of  trade  or  chagrin,  the  next  time  Russia 
makes  war  on  Turkey,  the  latter  will  find  a  chain  of  naval  stations 
and  forts  from  Odessa  all  around  to  Batoum.  In  that  case, 
before  the  English  or  allied  fleets  could  enter  the  Dardanelles 
another  Russian  army  corps  might  dictate  near  Constantinople  a 
new  and  more  permanent  treaty  than  that  of  San  Stefano. 
Constantinople  might  then  see  the  Cross  over  St.  Sophia. 

One  feature  of  the  negotiations  on  this  head  is,  that  if  the 
reasons  for  declaring  Batoum  free  no  longer  exist,  and  if  the  forti- 
fications are  to  remain  at  Batoum,  why  may  not  other  clauses  of 
the  Berlin  treaty  be  abrogated  by  other  parties  ?  Why  may  not 
Bulgaria  become  independent  and  annex  East  Roumelia,  irrespect- 
ive of  treaties  ?  Why  may  not  England  and  other  Powers  be 
relieved  of  their  obligation,  conditioned  on  this  cession  of  Batoum 
to  Russia,  and  enter  the  Straits  at  their  will  and  pleasure  ? 

If  I  should  say  that  the  prominent  question  of  the  East  is 
one  of  grammar  ;  that  it  concerns  the  power  of  expression  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  language  ;  that  the  thesaurus  of  our  language  and 
the  history  of  philology  have  had  their  scientific  interest  in  the 
question,  and  their  sources  of  verbal  manufacture  in  and  around 
the  lands  of  which  this  new  contest  is  the  focus — the  answer  would 
be  challenged  as  rather  remote.  But  if  we  must  go  to  Rome 
and  Greece  for  the  origin  of  our  language,  this  discussion  takes 
us  still  farther  East.  It  takes  us  to  xhefons  et  origo  of  the  Teu- 
tonic tongues.  It  takes  us  to  the  Caspian,  and  gives  an  idea  of 
the  antiquity  and  mosiac  qualities  of  our  wonderful  language. 

The  contest  for  Batoum  and  its  connections  takes  us  by  rail  to 
Baku,  and  from  Baku  to  the  inner  sanctuary  of  our  language.  If 
we  go  to  Armenia,  in  fancy,  for  the  Garden  of  Eden,  we  may 
more  surely  go  to  the  Caucasus  and  the  Caspian  for  the  ancestral 
consanguinity  of  our  own  tongue  and  its  relatives.  Grammarians 
have  in  the  last  analysis  divided  the  languages  of  our  earth  into 


OUR  CA  UCASIAN  ANCESTR  Y. 


"^IZ 


three  great  tribes.  The  most  important  to  us  of  these  three  is 
what  is  known  as  the  Indo-European,  or  Indo-Germanic.  This 
includes  many  stocks,  and  among  them  the  Saxon  and  Celt,  who 
gently  lie  down  together  in  linguistic  love.  How  is  this  proven  ? 
By  the  words  common  to  the  various  tongues.  The  words  most 
familiar  to  our  own  tongue  belong  to  a  mountainous  country,  a 
cold  climate  and  a  tideless  sea. 

These  terms  fulfill  the  conditions  which  point  to  the  vicinity  of 
the  Caspian  and  the  Caucasus.  Philosophy,  history,  philology 
and  tradition  here  agree.  Besides,  these  tongues  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean stock  have  no  original  words  which  signify  their  genesis  in 
a  different  country.  It  is  ascertained  beyond  a  doubt  that  there 
are  affinities  between  our  own  language  and  the  languages  of  this 
interesting  Caucasian  land  and  Caspian  Sea.  The  oldest  dialects 
once  spoken  there  are  akin  to  our  own.  For  instance,  the  Zend  is 
the  oldest  in  use;  then  comes  the  Pehlvi,  and  then  the  modern  Per- 
sian. It  is  shown,  in  examining  certain  roots  of  our  own  words, 
that  57  Zend,  43  Pehlvi,  and  162  modern  Persian  are  allied  to 
Saxon  roots. 

Is  it  not  one  of  the  eccentricities  of  this  reflux  wave  of  language 
and  civilization,  that  the  Indo-European  people  are  pushing  their 
adventures  for  knowledge  and  business  into  these  early  centres  of 
historic  interest  ? 

"  Old  Persia  !  New  Persia  !  "  exclaims  Marvin,  summing 
up  the  situation.  "What  visions  they  conjure  up  of  the  exten- 
sion of  the  White  Czar's  dominions  toward  the  British  empire  ! 
Persia,  a  mere  khanate,  dependent  for  its  existence  upon  the  nod 
of  the  empire  of  Russia  !  If  the  rocks  at  Baku  could  speak,  what 
tales  they  could  tell  the  slovenly  slippered  Persians  loafing  about 
the  bazaars,  under  the  eye  of  the  bearded,  heavy-booted  Russian 
policeman,  of  the  great  creed  and  great  empire  of  their  ancestors  ! 
Once  upon  a  time  these  Persians  of  the  elder  time  resorted  to  the 
Surakhani  altars  to  thank  the  great  fire  god — Petroleum — that  they 
were  not  as  other  people;  poor,  cowardly,  oppressed  creatures  now, 
but  once  warriors  and  statesmen,  from  Delhi  to  Constantinople." 

Persia  will  be  nothing  between  the  upper  mill-stone  of  Russia 
and  the  lower  one  of  Great  Britain  ! 

Yon  waste  where  roaming  lions  howl, 
Yon  aisle  where  moans  the  gray-eyed  owl, 
Was  once  the  proud  Persian's  great  abode. 


174 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


Thus  anathematizing  Russia  for  her  aggrandizement,  Great 
Britam  for  her  tame  acquiescence,  and  Persia  for  its  rotten-ripe 
condition,  Marvin  preaches  a  sermon  and  makes  a  prophecy  from 
the  oleaginous  rocks  of  Baku.  These  are  the  rocks  upon  which 
English  power  in  the  East  will  split. 

The  Russians  will  be  the  element  in  the  great  Caspian  region; 
*'  while,"  as  Marvin  prophesies,  "  a  mere  handful  of  white  faces  will 
be  all  that  will  represent  English  suzerainty  at  Benares  and  Alla- 
habad; Merv  will  be  a  busy  Russian  mart,  another  Kazan  or  Oren- 
borg ;  and  Baku,  with  a  population  of  half  a  million  or  more  of 
Russians,  the  all-powerful  metropolis  of  the  Caspian." 

While  I  am  not  aware  that  these  dynastic  and  imperial 
prophecies  concern  us  Americans  greatly,  still,  their  fulfillment,  in 
a  business  point  of  view,  does  affect  us  in  an  article  which  is  the 
fourth  in  values  in  the  catalogue  of  our  imports.  It  is  in  vain, 
therefore,  for  us  to  seem  indifferent  to  these  ratiocinations  and 
revelations  as  to  the  Caspian  future.  True,  they  were  made  by  a 
journalist  three  years  ago  ;  but  to-day,  the  world  of  diplomacy 
here  and  elsewhere  is  ringing  its  wild  changes  and  charges  upon 
one  remarkable  transformation  scene  on  the  Black  and  Caspian 
seas.  Russia  deliberately,  before  the  eyes  of  Europe,  tears  up  the 
Berlin  treaty.  After  her  staunch  defense  of  it  in  the  East  Roume- 
lian  imbroglio,  from  one  motive  or  another  she  gives  formal  notice  to 
the  signatory  powers  that  Batoum  shall  be  no  longer  free  but 
Russian  !  As  these  strange  shadows  are  cast  by  this  old  Light  of 
Asia  into  the  dreams  of  empire  and  the  paths  of  commerce,  I 
turn  down  my  argand  lamp,  and  bid  my  readers  "  Good  Night." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF   RACES  AND   CLASSES   IN   TURKEY. 

The  costume  of  the  Turk  has  changed  very  much  in  what  I 
may  call  my  own  time — since  185 1 — especially  the  head-gear.  So 
have  his  characteristics.  The  Turks,  and  all  subjects  of  Turkey 
who  are  not  Mussulmans,  wear  a  red  fez  with  a  black  silk  tassel. 
It  is  shaped  like  an  ordinary  tumbler.  It  is  never  removed 
except  on  going  to  bed.  Then  the  old-fashioned  white  cotton 
cap  takes  its  place.  Some  of  the  subjects  of  the  Porte  wear  a 
black  fez.  There  are  grades  of  color  in  the  red  fez.  But  from 
the  Sultan  down  to  the  mendicant  in  the  street,  the  red  fez  is  a 
sign  of  a  rayah,  or  subject.  It  is  not  so  much  a  sign  of  his 
religion  as  the  turban  is.  The  turban  covers  the  old  conservative, 
the  iron-clad,  the  moss-back,  dyed-in-the-wool  Mussulman  ;  and 
the  larger  the  turban  the  tougher  and  more  venerable  the  devotee. 
The  fez  is  sometimes  called  a  tarbouche,  especially  in  Egypt.  It 
is  customary  for  the  old-fashioned  Mussulman  to  wrap  several 
yards  of  muslin  around  the  fez,  and  the  more  voluminous  the 
head-gear  the  more  pious  its  wearer. 

It  was  not  without  an  effort  that  the  two  or  three  preceding 
Sultans  were  enabled  to  change  the  street  dress  of  the  people, 
and  substitute  the  fez  for  the  turban,  or  the  shoe  for  the  slipper 
or  baboosh.  It  was  a  long  time  before  other  ancient  Moslem  ways 
were  eliminated.  Even  yet,  a  walk  through  Stamboul  proper 
shows  that  the  blood  of  the  ancient  Ottoman  still  stirs  beneath  its 
European  investment. 

The  Turks  have  no  very  marked  vices  ;  no  catalogue  can  be 
made  of  them.  The  worst  they  do  is  hidden  from  the  other 
people  who  reside  among  them.  The  Koran  forbids  them  to  play 
■cards  for  money,  and  they  observe  the  Koran.  It  commands 
them  not  to  quarrel  and  fight,  and  they  are  scarcely  ever  arrested, 
like  the  burly  Englishman,  for  contesting  with  fist  or  foot  in  the 


I  76  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

Street.  They  never  blaspheme.  There  are  few  cases  of  murder 
among  them.  They  are  too  honest  to  be  thieves.  They  do  not 
regard  poverty  as  a  reproach,  much  less  as  a  crime. 

It  is  the  custom  of  those  who  pretend  to  be  the  censors  of 
morals,  to  speak  of  the  lack  of  progressive  sagacity  of  the  Otto- 
mans. They  are  called  barbaric  ;  and  every  dastardly  act  or 
crime  committed  by  the  Christians  of  the  Orient — I  mean  the 
Greeks,  the  Italians,  the  foreigners  who  reside  in  the  Turkish 
dominion — is  attributed  to  the  Turk.  But  I  assert  that  those 
nations  who  imagine  themselves  to  be  very  high  in  the  scale  of 
advancement  have  much  of  democratic-republican  liberty  to  learn 
from  a  nation  which  gives  every  one  a  fair  field  of  enterprise,  and 
opens  to  the  humblest  bootblack  the  office  of  the  Grand  Vizier. 
Moreover,  when  it  is  said  that  the  courts  of  administration  tend 
to  cruel  oppression,  especially  upon  the  peasantry,  it  will  be 
found  that  in  the  main  this  is  not  true  ;  and  where  cases  of 
wrong  do  occur,  they  can  generally  be  traced  directly  to  the  ill- 
conduct  of  the  Governors,  who  are  often  of  another  race  than 
the  Turkish. 

It  has  always  been  the  case  in  the  East,  that  there  has  been  an 
immense  amount  of  corruption.  It  is  not  necessary  to  apologize  for 
it ;  and  those  countries  whose  criminal  calendars  are  choked  with 
vile  murders  and  burglaries  and  wife-beatings,  and  marital  infeli- 
cities and  infidelities,  and  whose  language  is  brutal  and  whose 
insults  are  coarse,  are  not  the  nations  who  should  throw  stones 
at  the  Turkish  people.  The  divorce  courts  of  Berlin,  Paris  and 
London  give  us  revelations  which  the  worst  that  we  can  imagine  of 
the  harem  cannot  equal  in  sickening  detail. 

A  French  writer,  in  comparing  the  Turkish  with  other  peoples, 
praises  their  justice,  impartiality  and  religious  tolerance,  and  com- 
mends the  simplicity  of  their  organization,  the  rapidity  of  their 
executive  work,  the  facility  of  their  resources,  the  absence  of 
"red-tape,"  and  the  informalities  of  their  prompt  action. 

There  is  much  habitual  simplicity  in  the  Orient.  Out  of 
this  habit  springs  their  hospitality,  which  is  unbounded  ;  and  hos- 
pitality is  but  another  name  for  unworldliness.  Some  years  ago, 
in  one  of  the  remote  Arabian  provinces  of  the  empire,  there  was 
some  gold  coinage  put  into  circulation.  The  people  had  never 
seen  it  before.  They  did  not  like  it.  They  preferred  the  old 
white  shekels  of  the  fathers  ;  and  a  Yankee  captain  who  came 


QUALITIES  OF  THE  TURK.  ijj 

along  that  coast,  drove  a  thriving  business  by  trading  off  old  silver 
coin  for  gold  coins  of  equal  size. 

Judging  by  the  thousands  of  soldiers  whom  I  saw  after  the 
emeute  in  Bulgaria  in  1885,  and  by  the  physique  and  robustness 
of  those  who,  every  Friday,  pass  our  Legation  on  their  way  to  the 
Salemlik,  I  think  that  the  average  Turk  is  in  a  contented  and 
healthy  state.  He  shows  an  equable  temper  and  a  regular  life.  His 
religious  observances  and  grave  countenance  give  to  his  habitual 
reserve,  not  merely  the  outward  sign,  but  the  inward  kindness 
joined  with  an  easy  manner.  Suppose  he  has  the  love  of  ease  ; 
suppose  he  is  deficient  in  our  ethics  and  education  ;  suppose  his 
mental  faculties  are  not  fully  developed  and  sophisticated  ;  sup- 
pose he  does  loll  upon  a  divan  and  pass  the  time  with  his  guests 
in  talking  of  indifferent  things  ;  suppose  he  is  content  with  his 
chibouque  and  coffee,  his  mosque,  bath  and  repetitious  prayers,  his 
game  of  chess  or  backgammon  ;  suppose  he  is  eager  to  listen  to 
the  old  tales,  proverbs  and  parables,  or  revels  in  the  enjoyment  of 
his  astrologies  and  his  pilaf — it  may  be  said  of  him,  that  when  he 
comes  down  to  work  as  a  mechanic  or  merchant,  he  is  honest  and 
fair  in  his  labor  and  dealings.  As  a  farmer  he  serenely  plows  his 
fields  and  reaps  his  harvests,  amid  the  vicissitudes  of  his  lot  and 
his  trials  with  the  tax-gatherer.  At  home  he  is  a  model  of 
domestic  tenderness  toward  his  family,  and  loyal  to  his  sovereign 
and  religion.  In  summing  up  his  character,  the  qualities  of 
patience,  candor,  contentment  and  resignation  are  conspic- 
uous beyond  those  of  any  other  race  upon  the  footstool.  If  the 
religion  of  the  Koran  pervades  every  act  of  his  life,  and  mixes 
with  his  every  occupation  ;  if  his  prayer,  by  its  frequent  dropping 
wears  away  the  stoniness  of  his  heart,  still  he  preserves  the 
refinement  and  hospitality  that  belong  to  the  Orient.  He  will  give 
to  his  guests  all  that  he  has — "  eggs,  fruit,  coffee,  bread,  fish^ 
honey  with  Scio  wine,  and  all  for  love,  not  money." 

While  here  as  Minister,  I  received  letters  frcm  many  parts 
of  the  United  States,  inquiring  whether  Turkey  has  not  set  an 
example  in  regard  to  the  "  prohibition  "  of  ardent  spirits.  The 
answer  is :  that  the  Turk,  under  the  law  of  Mahomet,  does 
not  drink  himself  nor  sell  spirituous  liquors.  I  do  not  accept  the 
report  that  there  is  a  taste  for  drink  spreading  among  the  Turks, 
or  even  among  the  Arabs.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  the 
dissipated  Mahometan,  as  a  rule.  The  rakee-bibbing  Turk  is  not  a 


I  78  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

character  to  be  suppressed  by  statute,  because  he  does  not  exist. 
Perhaps  a  little  spirituous  liquor  discreetly  imbibed  might 
stir  the  Turk  into  more  activity.  This  might  be  tolerated, 
even  if  the  beads  on  the  beaker's  brim  brought  him  into  more 
frequent  conversation  with  the  bibulous  Christian.  It  might 
elucidate  things  hidden  in  connection  with  Eastern  faith,  or  those 
hidden  caves  of  wealth  which  require  only  a  bottle  of  rosoglio 
to  inspire  the  magic  words,  "  Open  sesame  !  "  The  lamp  of 
Aladdin,  in  the  absence  of  American  or  Baku  naphtha,  might  burn 
brighter  if  fed  with  a  little  alcohol.  It  is  something  to  the 
credit  of  the  Turk,  and  certainly  to  the  discredit  of  other 
races  in  Turkey,  that  when  one  of  their  own  kith,  or  a  Greek 
or  Armenian,  gets  drunk  and  goes  staggering  around  at  the 
festivities,  he  is,  in  the  Eastern  phraseology,  considered  drunk, 
a  la  Franka. 

The  Turk  is  not  the  same  in  personal  appearance  as  his  ances- 
tors in  Central  Asia.  The  Parthians  who  antagonized  the 
Romans,  and  the  Kurds  who  harassed  Xenophon  and  his  ten 
thousand  Greeks,  have  descendants  who  are  still  ferocious  ;  but 
the  Turk  corresponds  more  nearly  with  the  European  than  with 
the  Asiatic  type,  because  of  his  inheritance  of  Caucasian  blood 
from  the  maternal  line  of  Georgia  or  Circassia — which  is  the 
bluest  of  the  European  stock. 

One  of  the  offices  performed  by  the  head  of  a  Turkish  house- 
hold is  the  bringing  on  his  return  home,  every  evening,  an 
offering  to  his  family!  You  pass  in  the  streets  of  Pera  and 
Stamboul,  toward  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  at  every  turn,  a  Turk 
going  to  his  house,  but  always  full-handed.  He  carries  a  gift, 
no  matter  how  trifling :  it  may  be  a  cluster  of  grapes,  a  box  of 
sweetmeats  or  fig  paste,  or  a  fish,  or  some  fruit  or  vegetable. 
This  offering  is  always  made  to  his  penates.  If  for  a  day  he 
should  omit  it  without  explanation,  the  females  of  the  harem 
would  be  apt  to  infer'  that  a  divorce  was  impending.  There  is 
something  very  beautiful  about  this  custom.  It  is  not  limited  to 
the  household.  When  we  left  Egypt  to  return  to  Constantinople, 
the  wife  of  the  Turkish  High  Commissioner,  Ghazi  Moukhtar 
Pasha,  sent  us  a  present  of  rare  fruit,  including  pineapples.  They 
were  not  only  done  up  in  a  shining  white  napkin,  but  the  napkin 
itself  was  covered  with  a  rare  purple  silk  handkerchief.  The 
latter  still  remains  as  a  souvenir  of  the  signal  courtesy  of  this 


TURKISH  GENTLENESS. 


179 


rcstimable  family  into  whose  harem  my  wife  had  the  pleasure  of 
an  entree.  Notwithstanding  the  lapse  of  time,  the  fragrance  of 
that  pineapple  still  hangs  around  the  elegant  fabric  in  which  the 
fruit  was  ensconced. 

Among  other  qualities  to  be  mentioned,  is  the  unselfish  kind- 
liness with  which  the  Turks  treat  their  superiors  and  inferiors. 
They  illustrate,  in  their  daily  observance,  what  Sir  Thomas  More 
has  said  so  pithily:  "  To  be  humble  to  superiors  is  duty;  to  equals, 
A%  courtesy  ;  to  inferiors,  nobleness  ;  and  to  all,  safety."    This  is 


A  BULGARIAN  WOMAN. 


both  gentle  and  wise.  Therefore  the  Golden  Rule  is  not  con- 
sidered a  mere  form  by  them  :  it  is  practically  illustrated.  The 
richest  defers  to  the  poorest.  Women  and  children  and  the  weak 
receive  protection  in  every  emergency.  larents  are  reverenced 
by  sons,  and  all  the  agreeable  elements  which  belong  to  hospital- 
ity find  abundant  illustration. 

When  the  traveled  Turk  returns  from  a  Western  trip,  he  still 
retains,  or  expects  to  retain,  his  pride  as  to  the  nature  and  situa- 
tion of  his  own  people  and  their  splendid  capital.     This  is  not 


l8o  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

surprising  to  me.  The  morals  of  Western  civilization  appear 
loose  to  the  austere  followers  of  Mahometanism.  They  cannot 
understand  how  our  women  can  be  good  mothers  and  faithful 
wives.  They  think  vanity  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  their  display, 
and  that  the  desire  of  pleasing  others  than  their  own,  is  the  inspira- 
tion of  their  desire  to  shine  in  unveiled  social  life. 

Certainly  a  people  like  the  Turks  cannot  be  far  aloof  from  the 
best  instincts  and  moralities  of  our  nature.  They  love  rural  scenery. 
They  seek  beautiful  spots  for  the  festival  and  home.  They  like 
commanding  points  in  a  landscape.  Their  kiosks,  vineyards  and 
flower-beds  are  in  the  favored  nooks.  They  love  to  drink  in  the 
balmy  air  and  bright  prospect.  Their  happiness  consists  greatly  in 
that  natural  joyance  which  is  the  essence  of  country  life. 

These  are  some  of  the  salient  features  of  this  race,  which  once 
horrified  mankind,  and  which  occasionally  still  startles  them,  under 
fierce  provocation.  Like  the  pirates  and  vikings  of  Norseland, 
they  have  been  much  modified  by  time  and  circumstance. 

They  are  surrounded  by  other  races  and  peculiar  classes,  some 
of  whom  deserve  a  photographic  script.  These  are  the  Greeks, 
Armenians,  Franks,  Kurds,  Persians,  Bulgarians,  Circassians  and 
the  Slavs,  including  the  Montenegrin,  and  the  Albanian,  or  Croat. 
The  Jews  deserve  a  separate  chapter.  They  are  "chosen"  for 
that  purpose. 

I  have  often  been  struck  with  the  fact  that  while  the  men  of 
these  various  races  are  shrewd,  money-getting  merchants — active 
in  all  the  various  phases  of  life — they  pay  little  attention  either 
to  literature  or  science.  There  is  but  one  artist  known  among 
the  Turks,  and  he  gives  his  time  mostly  to  the  Museum  near  the 
Porte.  It  is  very  difficult,  in  such  a  community,  to  keep  up  an 
interest,  either  in  the  theatre  or  the  opera.  Our  conclusion  is,  that 
the  land  of  the  Greek,  the  land  of  the  Garden  of  Paradise,  which 
fancy  locates  in  Armenia,  the  land  of  Assyrian,  Judean  and  classic 
interest,  has  not  so  many  of  those  active  and  gentle  amenities 
which  add  to  the  social  life  of  the  West  many  of  its  alluring, 
elevating,  comforting  and  instructive  features. 

The  Greeks  have  one  vulnerable  spot.  Otherwise  they  might 
conquer  the  Orient,  as  they  did' in  earlier  days.  They  are,  in 
this,  like  Achilles  ;  but  the  spot  is  in  the  heart,  not  in  the  heel. 
It  is  infidelity  toward  each  other.  They  are  jealous  of  one 
another.     They  are  perpetually    quarreling  about  ascendancy. 


COMPOSITE  RA  CES.  1 8 1 

Social  ties  and  individual  friendships  give  way  before  their  quar- 
rels. Even  at  Fanar,  where  their  religion  seems  to  be  con- 
centred, there  seems  to  be  more  or  less  of  discontent. 

I  have  said  that  there  is  little  of  what  we  call  social  life  in 
Turkey.  The  Turks  encourage  none  ;  for  no  outsider  can  visit 
them  at  their  homes.  The  various  Christian  churches  and  sects 
are  often  in  collision,  and  at  the  best  the  sympathy  which  should 
belong  to  such  institutions  does  not  exist  to  a  great  extent.  The 
Christian  population,  which  is  mostly  Greek,  are  not  particularly 
attached  to  one  another,  for  they  are,  many  of  them,  "  shoddy  " 
people.  There  are  among  them  many  millionaires.  They  have 
made  their  money  quickly,  either  in  cotton  or  on  the  Bourse. 
They  are  looked  down  upon  by  the  old  Phanariot  Greek  families, 
who  are  blue-blooded,  and  petted  by  their  Turkish  rulers,  in 
whose  service  most  of  them  are  proud  to  be  engaged. 

It  is  often  very  difficult  to  distinguish  a  Jew,  an  Armenian,  a 
Turk  or  a  Greek,  one  from  the  other.  To  do  so  you  must  be  very 
observant.  You  want  to  know  the  man  first.  The  genteel 
haughtiness  of  the  Turk  will  soon  enable  you  to  tell  that  the  man 
whom  you  are  addressing  has  not  the  cunning  subtleness  of  the 
Greek.  His  manner  distinguishes  him  from  the  Albanian,  Jew 
or  Arab. 

The  Armenians  are  the  sharpest  people  in  the  world. 
They  are  the  Yankees  of  the  Orient,  with  much  additional  acute- 
ness.  They  are  divided,  also  ;  some,  as  will  appear,  lean  to  the 
Catholic  faith,  and  some  to  their  own  Church  ;  and  both  away 
from  the  Greek  orthodoxy. 

The  Levantines — the  descendants  of  the  French,  Italian,  Ger- 
man and  other  settlers  of  European  origin — are  also  among  the 
shrewdest  of  people.  They  are  a  class  by  themselves,  and  mingle 
very  little  with  the  Greeks  or  the  Armenians. 

It  is  a  mooted  question  as  to  which  race  is  paramount  for 
sharpness,  or,  as  we  call  it,  smartness.  I  will  not  attempt  to  de- 
bate that  question.  Certainly,  the  Turkish  is  not  the  one,  although 
it  is  the  ruling  power.  The  Frank  or  Levantine  is  not  the  one  ; 
nor  the  Greek,  nor  the  Jew  It  is  a  common  saying,  and  likely 
has  some  basis  of  fact  :  that, it  takes  the  wit  of  four  Turks  to 
over- reach  one  Frank  ;  two  Franks  to  cheat  one  Greek  ;  two 
Greeks  to  cheat  one  Jew  ;  and  six  Jews  to  cheat  one  Armenian  ; 
but  when  the   Persian,  the  Kurd  and  the  Croat,  the  Dervish, 


1 8  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

the  Gypsy,  the  Eunuch  and  hamal,  which  we  have  endeavored  to. 
photograph,  come  into  view,  the  Armenian  will  take  the  prize. 
Whether  it  is  from  lack  of  conscience,  or  because  he  has  more  en- 
terprise, or  because  he  has  been  thrown,  like  the  Hebrew,  on  his 
own  resources  in  his  wanderings  from  his  native  land — it  is  cer- 
tain that  wherever  he  is,  whether  as  the  Prime  Minister  of  Egypt, 
or  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  America — I  mean  Governor 
Thomas  Corwin,  of  Ohio,  of  Armenian-Hungarian  descent— the 
shrewdness  of  this  race  gives   them  grace,   humor,  eloquence,. 


ALBANIAN   IN   COSTUME. 


genius,  and  above  all,  intrepidity  in  self-seeking,  or,  in  one  word,, 
smartness.  The  Armenians  have  never  been  intimidated  by 
threats,  and  therefore  they  are  successful. 

The  hamal  is  generally  an  Armenian.  To  see  him  moving^ 
with  dignified  Samsonian  strength  and  stride,  amidst  the  various- 
pen-venders,  sugar-mongers  and  obscure  menders  of  things, 
who  howl  all  the  day  about  their  wares  or  trades,  is  one  of 
the  interesting  sights — if  not  sounds — of  the  Metropolis.  He  wears 
a  loose  gray  jacket  with  white  sleeves,  gjay  gaiters  and  red  belt> 


MIXED  RACES. 


He  carries  fabulous  loads  upon  his  shoulders.  I  have  seen  him 
carry  pianos,  and  even  carriages,  up-hill  on  his  back.  One  needs 
to  observe  a  hamal  govcvg  up  the  hill  of  Pera,  to  understand  what 
the  Bible  means  in  its  Oriental  metaphor,  when  it  says,  "  Bear  ye 
one  another' s  burdens. ' '  When  his  fete  day  comes  along,  a  high  and 
festive  time  results.  He  makes  strange  music  with  an  old  pipe,  and 
dances  along  the  streets  of  Pera  as  an  elephant  amidst  crockery. 
The  great  body  of  the  Jews  are  wily,  and  very  difficult  to  catch 


335S»»3awiste=J*aa*«>Ji4 


CIRCASSIANS. 

in  a  trade.  The  Greeks  are  always  more  or  less  timid.  The 
Levantine  is  anything  you  please,  for  he  has  no  nation.  The  les- 
sons of  the  Koran  seem  to  have  made  the  Turk  the  best  of  the  pop- 
ulations which  he  governs  and  by  which  he  is  surrounded.  What  he 
would  be  if  he  belonged  to  a  subjugated  people  under  Christian 
despotism,  is  another  and,  to  be  hoped,  improbable  question. 

The  Bulgarian  is  generally  described  as  an  honest,  hard  work- 
ing, but  rather  slow  and  stupid  laborer  or  peasant.     The  ferocity 


184  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

attributed  to  his  character  is  denied — it  can  be  justly  denied  of 
late  years — but  according  to  history  in  the  Middle  Ages,  nothing 
was  comparable  to  the  outrages  of  which  the  Bulgarian  was 
capable.  Now,  he  is  considered  too  tame — by  some,  too  domestic 
and  sober.  He  is  the  demure  head  of  a  family,  which  enjoys  its 
dance  on  the  common  ;  or  a  peasant  faithful  to  his  work  in  the 
fields,  or  joyous  at  the  rose  harvest  beneath  the  Balkans.  He 
has  not,  as  a  rule,  been  subject  to  much  instruction.  His  demon- 
strative faculty  is  feeble.  It  is  of  the  peasant  I  speak,  not  the 
upper  classes. 

Recent  events  have  demonstrated  that  the  Bulgarian  has  much 
conservatism  to  the  square  inch.  The  whole  people  are  pos- 
sessed of  a  patience  in  their  enthusiasm,  not  to  be  compared 
with  any  other  nation  which  has  struggled,  or  is  struggling,  to  be 
free.  Those  who  are  not  prejudiced,  and  who  have  visited  Bul- 
garia, say  that  a  more  uninviting  race  on  casual  acquaintance 
than  its  peasantry  hardly  exists.  ^Miat  better  could  be  expected 
of  a  subjugated  people  ?  Centuries  of  oppression,  extortion,  mis- 
rule and  injustice  will  go  far  to  deaden,  in  any  race,  the  sense  of 
manly  independence  and  courage,  and  to  replace  these  \'irtues 
with  cunning  and  duplicity. 

The  Bulgarian  is,  as  a  race,  gifted  with  honesty,  sincerity  and 
economy.  He  is  quiet  and  peaceful,  not  caring  much  for  the  dog- 
mas of  the  Church,  but  independent  enough  to  separate  both  from 
the  Greek  Church  in  Russia  and  the  Greek  Patriarch  in  Constan- 
'  tinople.  Our  American  College  on  the  Bosporus  has  vindicated 
his  intellectual  stamina,  for,  in  its  curriculum,  the  Bulgarian 
generally  carries  oflF  the  highest  prizes.  It  is  not  unknown  that 
the  leaders  in  the  movement  for  Bulgarian  independence  are 
graduates  from  the  Robert  College,  where  their  minds  have  been 
developed,  permeated,  disciplined  and  elevated  by  American 
teaching  and  tenets. 

The  Circassians,  when  the  Russians  thrust  them  forth  after  the 
long  wars  in  which  Schamyl  was  their  heroic  leader,  were  kindly 
invited  to  Turkey  by  the  Sultan.  Many  of  them  are  yet  to  be 
seen  around  Constantinople,  and  not  a  few  in  their  peculiar  array. 
They  have  a  dignified  and  military  carriage  ;  their  faces  are  tan- 
ned ;  they  ?re  mostly  clad,  somewhat  after  the  Russian'method, 
in  long  gray,  close-buttoned  coats,  which  are  girded  with  the 
sash.     The   head  is  wrapped  in  a  sort  of  handkerchief.     Their 


THE  CIRCASSIANS  AS  BANDITTI.  185 

arms  are  a  sword  by  their  side  and  pistols  in  their  belt ;  and  the 
cartridges  are  carried  in  semi-circular  rows  upon  the  breast 
of  their  coat.  The  engraving  from  a  photograph  herein, 
shows  the  peculiarity  of  their  attire.  When  I  first  saw  this  cart- 
ridge arrangement,  I  thought  it  was  a  musical  instrument  for  the 
lips,  and  perhaps  it  sometimes  does  make  music.  When  under 
proper  restraint,  the  Circassians  may  be  good  soldiers  and 
officers  ;  but  those  with  whom  I  had  some  diplomatic  "  Diver- 
sion "  in  Asia  Minor,  and  who  robbed  and  committed  out- 
rages which  it  is  not  best  to  mention,  are  the  Circassians  now 
resident  there.  They  formerly  lived  in  the  district  around  Adri- 
anople,  but  their  accumulation  of  cattle  and  sheep,  without  labor 
or  care,  since  they  have  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Turkey,  looked 
suspicious.  The  truth  is,  that  their  accumulations  were  stolen 
from  the  more  industrious  Bulgarians  or  Turks,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, the  male  Circassian  is  not  now  in  good  odor  in  Turkey, 
If  it  were  a  female  Circassian,  I  would  not  be  so  sweeping  in  my 
remark,  but  qualify  it  by  saying  that,  outside  of  the  harem,  the 
Circassian  is  not  admired. 

I  have  read,  in  the  accounts  of  Montenegro,  descriptions  of 
the  brave  mountaineers  who  people  that  wild  country  of  the  Black 
Mountain.  I  have  seen  many  of  them  upon  the  Bosporus,  and 
in  the  isle  of  Prinkipo,  where  we  summered  in  1886.  They  are 
gardeners  and  farm-hands.  I  have  seen  some  of  the  same  race 
who  dress  as  if  they  were  princes.  The  truth  is,  that  their  wives 
at  home  do  most  of  the  work.  They  prepare  the  toilets  of  the 
men  with  exquisite  skill,  work  in  the  fields,  and  embroider  or 
fashion  the  clothes  of  their  grandiose  husbands.  Once  I  saw  in 
the  procession  going  to  the  Salemlik,  a  cavalier  whose  equine 
accoutrements  seemed  golden  ;  and  the  surtout  which  covered 
his  dress  was,  in  fact,  worked  with  gold  chains  on  an  elabo- 
rate Plutocratic  pattern.  No  doubt  he  spelled  his  name  with  a 
"  Vitch,"  as  representative  of  the  Prince  of  Montenegro.  If  I 
liad  been  possessed  of  an  instantaneous  photographic  apparatus  I 
should  have  risked  his  yataghan  to  capture  his  habiliments. 

Among  the  peculiar  costumes  which  one  sees  ifpon  the  Galata 
bridge  are  those  of  the  Croats.  They  belong  to  the  same  Grgeco- 
Slavonic  race  as  the  Albanian.  They  wear  long  white  robes 
fastened  with  a  broad  belt,  out  of  which  many  ferocious  weapons 
peep,  but  are  seldom  drawn. 


1 86  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

The  Persian  merchants  are  by  no  means  undistinguished  for 
politeness,  cunning  and  trickery.  In  these  accomplishments- 
there  is  no  class  in  Persia  or  in  Turkey  that  excels  them,  except 
the  Armenian.  What  has  been  said  of  the  Armenian,  Persian 
and  Hebrew  in  Turkey,  may  be  also  said  of  the  same  races  in 
Mesopotamia  and  the  provinces.  But  in  Asiatic  Turkey,  between 
the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  the  merchant  who  does  most  of 
the  dealing  is  an  Arab,  the  Turk  being  there  either  as  a  civil  func- 
tionary or  an  army  officer.  Europeans  are  rarely  found  in  that 
country  now.  In  1885  Bassorah  had  only  fifteen  Europeans, 
and  Bagdad  but  fifty-one.  I  learn  that  whenever  trouble  arises- 
there  affecting  the  European,  if  the  English,  French  and  Rus- 
sian Consuls  are  derelict,  he  had  better  call  in  a  Mahometan- 
priest,  as  then  he  will  be  more  likely  to  have  a  satisfactory  result. 

The  Kurd  is  a  warrior  and  spoilsman.  It  was  the  Kurd  that, 
fought  Xenophon,  over  the  numerous  parasangs  which  we  traveled 
in  callow  classical  days.  The  Kurd  harassed  the  Greeks  in 
their  retreat  He  was  a  formidable  enemy  of  the  Roman  legion. 
The  Crusaders  opposed  hirn  in  vain  ;  and  to-day  he  is  the  most 
incorrigible  of  the  subjects  of  Turkey.  To  hold  him,  when 
caught,  is  like  attempting  to  hold  water  in  a  cullender  ;  and  ta 
catch  him  is  indeed  like  catching  a  Tartar.  He  gives  to  the 
government  and  to  diplomacy  more  trouble  than  our  aborigines 
give  to  the  Federal  Government. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    JEWS   OF   TURKEY. 

It  was  my  especial  good  fortune,when  trouble  and  trial  seemed 
to  be  renewed  in  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  of  Russia, 
Roumania,  Morocco  and  other  lands,  to  make  such  public 
remonstrance  in  Congress  as,  I  think,  eventuated  in  some 
restraint,  if  not  altogether  in  the  cessation,  of  such  persecution. 
More  recently,  while  acting  as  Minister  to  Turkey,  I  have  had 
the  opportunity  of  observing,  within  my  own  bailiwick,  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Hebrews  in  their  ancient  land.  As  Judaea  and  other 
parts  of  the  Orient  are  still  the  home  of  thousands  of  that  race, 
and  as  they  will  seek,  even  unto  death,  or,  rather,  as  they  near 
the  fatal  goal,  for  **thy  palaces,  oh  Jerusalem!"  to  brighten 
their  dying  eye  and  to  illumine  their  latest  hope,  it  is  not  without 
interest,  as  well  as  emotion,  that  I  have  observed  the  political, 
social  and  religious  relation  which  the  Jews  hold  to  the  dominant 
rulers  of  the  Orient. 

There  is  no  authentic  census  of  this  empire  ;  so  that  the 
information  which  I  give,  although  meagre,  has  been  obtained 
from  the  rabbins  of  Constantinople  and  Jerusalem,  who  have 
interested  theriiselves  in  furnishing  it. 

The  Jews  of  Constantinople  are  descendants  from  those 
who  were  once  expelled  from  Spain.  They  returned  upon  their 
Eastern  track  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  language  spoken 
by  them  is  a  mixture  of  bad  Spanish,  worse  Greek  and  infamous 
Turkish.  Ever  since  these  Jews  were  banished  from  Spain  by  the 
bigoted  King  Philip  11.  they  have  had  little  fair  play  in  the  arena 
of  mankind.  But  Constantinople  cannot  compare  with  some  other 
cities  of  the  East  for  its  Hebrew  population. 

Salonica  has  35,000  Jews.  It  is  a  commercial  place  with 
a  future.  It  is  a  paradise  for  Jews.  When  you  are  rowed 
ashore  there,  your  boatman  is  an  Israelite  masquerading  in 
Turkish    fez   and    trousers.      On    landing,  you  are  hustled  by 

187 


1 88  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

porters  in  turbans  and  red  shoes  ;  but  they  are  Jews.  You 
enter  the  Custom-house:  the  mob  of  officers,  with  their  continuous 
gabble,  are  Jews.  Jews  in  turbans  and  Jews  out  of  turbans;  Jews 
as  builders  of  houses  and  Jews  as  barbers — the  children  of  Israel 
are  everywhere,  in  every  kind  of  work.  They  are  dealers  in  metals, 
in  old  clothes,  and  in  almost  every  object  that  belongs  to  the  city 
where  Paul,  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  preached  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians  nearly  2,000  years  ago. 

It  is  a  matter  of  doubt  how  this  element  ever  reached  Mace- 
donia. Did  they  come  from  the  East  with  Alexander  the  Great,  on 
his  return  from  conquest  ?  When  the  Jews  were  dispersed,  would 
they  not  naturally  go  to  the  nearest  islands,  and  thence  to  the 
mainlands  of  Greece  ?  The  New  Testament  makes  mention  of  them 
in  early  days  at  Thessalonica.  It  was  some  250  years  B.  c. 
that  the  Jewish  mercantile  tendencies  were  noticeably  developed. 
In  these  early  days  the  cities  of  Macedonia  were  enriched  by 
synagogues  in  great  numbers.  It  is  said  that  some  of  the  Jews 
in  Salonica  are  ostensibly  Mahometan,  but  privately — otherwise. 

There  is  no  occasion  in  Turkey  at  the  present  day  for  any 
such  reproach  of  hypocrisy,  as  the  Jews  are  partial  to  the  Sultan, 
and  the  Sultan  has  been  tolerant  of  them.  They  have  no  hier- 
archy. They  are  Congregationalists.  Each  congregation  is 
independent.  It  is  ruled  by  its  own  chief-rabbi.  The  Hebrew 
representative  head  is  at  Constantinople.  He  is  called  the 
Khakambashi.  He  is  the  chief  of  the  Israelite  nation  of  the 
empire.  He  is  a  part  of  that  system  by  which,  in  this  country  of 
divers  religions,  the  rule  of  the  Ottoman  is  enforced  through 
ecclesiastical  heads.  There  is  a  civil  council  also,  connected 
with  the  chief  rabbinate,  whose  functions  will  be  explained 
hereafter.  In  order  to  arrive  at  a  decision  in  religious  and  civil 
cases  in  a  Jewish  community,  judgments  are  expected  from 
those  most  learned  in  the  sacred  books.  These  are  followed  by 
the  Turkish  administration — just  as  our  United  States  courts  in 
the  several  States  follow  the  local  laws.  Could  there  be  a  better 
system  of  home  rule  ?  It  is  carried  almost  within  the  family,  in 
order  to  reconcile  domestic  litigation  and  to  prevent  intolerance. 
The  head  of  the  Hebrews  is  next  in  rank  after  the  Greek  and 
Armenian  Patriarchs. 

There  has  been  great  effort  in  the  Orient  to  convert  the  Jews 
to  Christianity.     It  has  had  little  or  no  success.     The  Jews  are 


JE  WISH  POPULA  TIO.V.  i  go 

reserved.  They  are  impervious  to  the  intrigues  of  the  Greek  and 
Slav.  There  is  no  section  of  the  subjects  of  the  Sultan  that 
gives  him  so  little  trouble.  Jew  and  Mahometan  get  on  admir- 
ably together.  This  is  often  disputed  by  the  transient  tourist,  but 
I  know  to  the  contrary.  Yet  between  the  Jew  and  the  Greek 
there  is  always  an  antagonism.  It  was  so  in  the  time  of  Christ 
and  "the   Fathers." 

The  Jewish  population  in  the  Ottoman  empire,  which  includes 
Egypt,  is  only  about  350,000.  Of  those,  90,000  live  in  Turkey 
in  Europe,  the  remainder  in  Asia  and  Africa.  Bulgaria,  where 
the  contest  is  for  self-government  against  the  pressure  of  Russia, 
contains  18,000  ;  Roumelia,  which  is  a  part  now  of  Bulgaria,  has 
7,000;  the  rest  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  known  as  Old  Thrace  in 
classic  history,  18,000;  and  Macedonia,  immediately  north  of 
Greece,  but  still  under  the  Turkish  empire,  45,000.  The  princi- 
pal cities  of  the  Ottoman  empire  which  contain  the  greatest 
Jewish  population  are  Constantinople,  which  has  45,000  ;  Bagdad, 
well  known  to  the  reader  of  "Thousand  and  One  Nights," 
30,000  ;  Smyrna,  a  city  of  great  commercial  importance,  25,000  ; 
Aleppo,  in  Syria,  10,000,  and  Jerusalem,  not  20,000,  as  is  repre- 
sented, but  fully  22,000.  The  English  Bishop,  in  a  recent  letter 
asking  for  aid  for  his  Protestant  church  at  Jerusalem,  states  that 
during  the  past  few  years  the  number  of  Jews  in  Palestine  has 
increased  from  15,000  to  42,000.  This  is  an  accurate  statement. 
It  is  confirmed  by  my  informants. 

So  far  as  commercial  transactions  go,  I  do  not  know  that  the 
habits  of  the  Jewish  people  could  be  improved  by  any  Christian- 
izing conversion.  They  are  as  good,  if  not  better,  than  the  Greek 
and  Armenian  merchants.  Stories  are  told  of  Jewish  merchants 
greatly  to  their  credit.  For  instance:  A  Salonica  merchant 
receives  a  large  order  from  foreign  merchants  for  prunes.  The 
part  of  the  country  from  which  he  expects  these  prunes  lies  two 
hundred  miles  away.  What  does  he  do  ?  There  are  no  postal 
communications,  no  telegraphs;  he  simply  hands  over  money 
enough  for  the  purchase  to  a  Jew.  This  commercial  traveler  goes 
off  to  the  interior  with  the  money.  He  may  not  return  for  some 
months;  but  the  business  is  done  faithfully.  Baker  in  his  book 
on  Turkey  says  that  he  met  a  merchant  who  had  twenty-seven 
thousand  pounds  sterling  (nearly  $150,000)  out  in  this  way,  and 
no  goods  in  his  store  to  show  for  it.     His  only  security  was  the 


IQO 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  JN  TURKEY. 


honesty  of  the  Jewish  commercial  traveler;  yet  the  purchases 
came  safely  to  the  store  in  due  time.  Now  that  the  United 
States  has  sent  a  Hebrew  as  Minister  to  Turkey,  perhaps  we  will 
have  more  authentic  accounts  of  his  race  and  their  progress.  One 
thing  I  think  my  successor  will  find,  that  the  Jews,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  chief  of  the  Israelitish  nation  in  the  empire,  are 
free  to  resolve  against  the  intrigues  of  either  Armenian,  Greek 
or  Slav. 

Why  should  not  the  Jew  and  the  Mahometan  do  well  to- 
gether ?  Did  not  Mahomet  draw  largely  upon  Moses  ?  Let  the 
reader  of  the  Koran,  or  of  the  history  of  its  Prophet,  recall  its 
pages  of  teaching  out  of  the  Pentateuch.  Let  him  go  along  with 
the  young  Mahomet  and  his  caravan  to  Syria.  Let  him  observe 
the  prophet  meeting  with  the  remnants  of  the  lost  tribes  near  the 
Red  Sea,  and  draw  from  them  the  lessons  of  the  Divine  judgment 
against  idolatry.  Like  Abraham  when  he  came  from  Chaldea, 
Mahomet  had  a  mysterious  reverence  for  Syria.  Was  it  not 
here  that  the  angel  of  God  spread  his  wings  over  the  patriarch  ? 
Was  it  not  here  that  the  idea  of  the  Unity  of  God  first  dawned 
on  Mahomet  ?  The  religion  of  Mahomet  is  not  behind  that  of 
the  Jew  and  Christian  in  reverence  for  the  Wise  King  and  his 
valiant  father.  Their  tombs  in  Jerusalem  are  guarded  by  the 
Turk  with  vestal  vigilance.  Why  should  not  the  Moslem  and 
the  Hebrew  live  in  accord  with  such  revelations  ? 

The  thrift,  care  and  trading  skill  of  the  Hebrews  have  not  been 
the  result  of  recent  events.  The  fact  that  they  made  out  of  so  small 
a  territory  as  Judfea  such  a  wonderful  nation,  indicates  a  natural 
superiority  which  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  rated.  They  always 
were  a  staunch  people,  ready  to  do  battle  for  their  own.  Even  in 
the  time  of  Moses  they  numbered  half  a  million  fighting  men. 
They  must  have  numbered  two  millions  of  people  when  they  re- 
volted against  the  Romans.  Galilee  alone  furnished  one  hundred 
thousand  fighting  men.  In  the  time  of  Solomon  his  kingdom  was 
greatly  enlarged.  It  extended  as  far  as  the  Euphrates;  and  what 
is  better,  like  the  wise  ruler  that  he  was,  he  had  peace  with  it  all 

It  is  very  hard  to  estimate  the  immense  wealth  of  the  Jews 
in  the  time  of  Solomon.  The  Bible  shows  what  it  cost  to  con- 
struct the  temple  and  other  buildings,  and  this  perhaps  is  a 
standard  by  which  to  judge  the  power  and  wealth  of  the  nation  at 
that  time. 


JE  WISH  QUALITIES  AND  QUAE TERS.  i  q  1 

The  Jew  is  always  ready  for  the  march.  From  the  time  he 
evacuated  Jerusalem  he  has  ever  since  been  evacuating  other 
countries  under  the  pressure  of  persecution.  Hence  in  eastern 
Europe  he  still  divides  his  property  into  three  parts;  one  of  float- 
ing capital,  another  in  jewelry,  and  the  third  in  the  money  of  the 
-country.  So  that  the  ecclesiastical  persecution,  which  drove  him 
from  land  to  land,  always  finds  him  ready  to  depart  with  portable 
property. 

The  Jews  and  Jewesses  of  the  East  are  said  to  have  less  of 
that  crafty  look  belonging  to  trade  which  centuries  have  more  or 
less  engrafted  upon  their  features.  There  are  Jews  whom  I  have 
seen  around  Jerusalem  and  Constantinople,  and  especially  among 
the  old  men,  who  remind  one  of  the  very  best  pictures  of  the  best 
artist's  representatives  of  the  great  prophets  of  Israel.  There  are 
the  dark,  oblong  eye  and  the  prominent  nose  still  visible.  But  the 
Jews  of  the  East  have  been  noted  as  having  high  foreheads,  a 
noble  mein,  and  a  spiritual  beauty  set  in  features  made  pure 
by  contemplation  of  those  things  that  make  the  glory  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  of  Jehovah.    • 

The  Jews  of  Constantinople  inhabit  that  quarter  which  lies 
between  the  Fanar,  where  the  Greek  Patriarch  lives,  and  the 
mosque  of  Eyoub,  outside  of  the  walls,  which  is  so  sacred  that 
Christians  are  prohibited  from  entering  it.  Many  Jews,  also, 
live  on  the  Pera  side  of  the  Golden  Horn.  I  cannot  say  that  the 
body  of  them  are  well-to-do.  They  are  poor.  I  cannot*  say 
that  they  lack  avariciousness,  for  they  have  that  in  common  with 
other  races  in  the  Orient.  Those  who  trade  with  you  in  the 
bazaars  are  as  apt  as  others  to  impress  you  with  their  probity,  or 
its  lack,  though  I  have  yet  to  know,  personally,  of  any  bad  faith 
on  their  part. 

It  is  an  interesting  spectacle  to  observe  the  Jewish  quarter.  A 
walk  or  ride  on  a  Saturday  from  Fanar  to  Eyoub  will  show  you 
three  Jewesses  to  every  Jew.  The  Jews  are  perhaps  off  on  some 
peripatetic  or  pedling  journey,  for  they  are  pedlers  as  well  as 
artisans  and  merchants.  But  the  Jewesses,  ah,  the  Jewesses  ! 
Many  of  them  have  rare  beauty.  They  sit  in  coveys,  like 
partridges,  but  with  gayer  plumage.  They  sit  where  they  can 
be  seen  ;  all  of  a  family  in  one  room.  They  are  exclusive,  like 
their  race. 

The  Jews    have   been  so  loyal  to  the  Sultan  and  his  gov- 


192  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

ernment  that  his  charity  has  been  bestowed  upon  them  freely. 
He  often  makes  the  chief  rabbi  the  almoner  of  his  bounty. 
In  some  of  the  Turkish  cities  outside  of  Constantinople  the 
Jews  make  a  better  worldly  showing  than  in  Constantinople.  In 
Broussa  the  brilliancy  of  the  windows  of  the  Hebrew  houses  are 
an  index  of  the  cleanliness  within.  The  women  who  look  out 
from  these  windows  have  head-dresses  of  exquisite  beauty,  rich 
in  gauze  or  painted  handkerchiefs  and  ornamentation  of  flowers 
and  jewelry. 

The  rich  Jews  of  Constantinople  are  seen  promenading  on 
the  quays  or  through  the  streets  upon  Saturdays,  dressed  in  their 
fur  gaberdines.  Their  women — like  those  in  northern  Africa 
whom  I  have  seen — when  attired  in  full  dress,  rival  the  gala- 
toilets  of  their  Turkish  sisters.  I  have  before  me  a  picture  of 
one  of  these  Jewish  ladies.  She  is  in  a  full  dress  of  white  silk. 
It  is  confined  above  the  hips  by  a  broad  girdle  of  wrought-gold, 
clasped  with  gems.  Above  this  robe  she  wears  a  pelisse,  which 
is  of  dove-colored  cashmere.  Costly  sables  overlay  this  robe. 
The  sleeves  are  loose,  and  fall  back  to  reveal  the  bracelets 
and  the  rings  that  flash  upon  her  fingers,  for,  in  this  respect,  the 
Jewess  is  not  unlike  the  Turkish,  Armenian  or  Greek  lady — in 
fact,  she  is  like  her  sex.  If  she  cannot  compare  with  the  picture 
which  Isaiah  in  his  third  chapter  paints  of  the  luxurious  and 
jewel-bedizened  and  feet-tinkling  angels  of  his  time,  it  is  because 
her  poverty  will  not  allow  the  extravagance.  The  more  costly 
the  gems  of  her  head  and  robe,  the  more  important  and  glorious 
she  appears.  Her  turban  is  of  enormous  size.  It  is  formed  of 
the  pointed  muslin  of  the  country.  It  is  also  covered  with 
jewels  of  rare  quality.  Beneath  it  are  pearls  and  emeralds,  as  to 
the  size  and  value  of  which,  as  they  gleam  over  her  brow,  down  on 
each  side  of  her  face,  and  even  upon  her  shoulders,  no  estimate 
of  mine  can  do  justice. 

It  has  been  said  by  those  professing  to  be  familiar  with  the 
condition  of  the  Hebrews  of  Constantinople,  that  they  wear  a 
subdued  and  spiritless  expression.  The  same  old  picture  of 
crouching  humiliation,  with  the  stealthy  glance  of  mercenariness, 
is  attributed  to  the  poor  Jew  of  Turkey.  While  he  may  feel  the 
constraint  which  his  condition  imposes,  and  while  within  the  last 
two  generations  he  has  been  the  subject  of  outrage — not  he  alone, 
but  those  of  his  household  and  of  the  gentler  sex — still  there  has 


PREJUDICES  AGAINST  HEBREWS.  193 

been  much  reform  in  this  direction.  Formerly,  it  was  a  custom 
when  the  Turks  and  Greeks  passed  the  Jews,  even  upon  the 
water,  for  the  former — the  superior  beings,  who  do  not  disdam  to 
worship  the  Nazarine — to  raise  one  hand,  and,  with  outstretched 
finger,  to  count  the  number  of  the  Jews  upon  the  boat.  This 
enumeration  was  thought  to  bring  heavy  misfortune  on  the 
numbered  party.  The  Jews,  Hke  most  Orientalists,  have  faith 
in  such  spells.  They  never  fail  to  retort  so  that  the  curse 
should  fall  back  upon  the  Turk  or  Greek.  Thus  was  the  bitterness 
renewed  from  time  to  time  by  this  mirth  of  the  tormentor  and  the 
sufferings  of  the  tormented.  But  this  custom  has  happily  gone 
to  the  rear.  As  an  illustration  of  this  progress  in  other  respects, 
as  well  as  with  reference  to  the  Jew,  may  I  not  relate  a  story  ? 

The  Sultan,  Mahmoud  the  Second,  renews  an  old  order — 
which  was  defied  by  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  the  British  Minister — 
by  which  Christians  on  horseback,  as  well  as  Turks,  should 
dismount  in  riding  past  his  palace.  One  day  a  man  passes  on 
horseback  before  the  palace,  without  dismounting.  The  zaptieh, 
or  policeman,  on  duty  calls  a  halt.  He  explains  to  the  horseman 
that  the  order  is  general. 

"  It  applies  to  all — Christians  and  Turks  equally." 

"  But,"  says  the  horseman,  to  the  consternation  of  the  police- 
man, "lam  not  a  Christian." 

The    zaptieh   responds  :  "  But   you  are   a  Turk,  are   you 
not?  " 

**  No,"  said  he,  "  I  am  a  Jew  ;  and  therefore  neither  a  Turk 
nor  a  Christian." 

He  was  allowed  to  pass  ;  it  was  a  proof,  not  of  the  persecu- 
tion of,  but  of  the  indifference  toward,  the  Jews  in  the  East. 

It  must  be  said  for  them,  as  a  class,  that  the  Hebrews  spend 
their  Sabbath  religiously.  They  are  most  conscientious  in  their 
ceremonies.  While  they  may  be  accused  of  extortion  and 
avarice,  they  never  fail  in  caring  for  the  poorer  portion  of  their 
own  people.  This  charity  inspires  them  with  the  hope  of  termi- 
nating their  lives  at  Jerusalem,  to  which  they  look  forward,  but 
with  a  better  prospect  beyond  this  life,  which  has  been  td  them  a 
sorrowing  pilgrimage. 

The  same  hostile  feeling  toward  the  Jews  which  reigns 
among  Germans,  Russians  and  Roumanians,  exists  to  some 
extent   in    Turkey.       Foolish    charges    about  kidnapping  chil- 


IQ4  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

dren,  and  accusations  about  their  stringency  in  business, 
are  not  uncommon  here,  as  in  Europe,  but  in  spite  of  all 
that  may  be  said  of  the  Hebrews,  they  are  not  as  bad  as  some  of 
their  neighbors.  They  are  very  rich  when  rich  at  all,  and  very 
poor  when  poor  at  all.  They  have  a  greater  liking  for  the  Moslem 
than  for  the  Christian.  Is  this  a  parodox  ?  No.  The  Moslem 
may  sneer  at  the  Jew,  but  he  has  more  charity  toward  him  than 
he  has  toward  the  Christian.  The  Jew  will  always  take  the 
Moslem's  side  against  the  Christian;  and  the  wealthy  Israelite, 
as  the  late  imbroglio  about  Bulgaria  attests,  always  assists  the 
government. 

The  Jew  when  poor  is  limited  in  his  industries  to  a  few  trades, 
generally  those  practiced  by  the  laboring  classes.  The  coarsest 
and  dirtiest  work  of  the  town  is  performed  by  him,  but  he  does 
it  with  patience.  He  is  the  chimney-sweep,  tinker  and  the  boot- 
black, but  he  still  holds  aloft  the  oracles  of  Jehovah  and  looks 
forward  to  the  beautiful  city  of  his  Love  as  the  resting-place  for 
his  weary  foot  and  aching  heart. 

It  is  to  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  and  to  the  institutions  of  that 
country  that  the  enjoyment  of  Jewish  liberty  and  citizenship  is 
due.  Hebrews  of  Constantinople  have  told  me  that  they  have 
nothing  to  complain  of  in  connection  with  the  rule  of  Turkey. 
Whatever  may  be  their  social  condition,  their  political  con- 
dition has  been  that  of  a  race  which  has  been  treated  with 
clemency  and  equality.  As  to  citizenship,  the  Hebrews  enjoy 
the  same  rights  as  the  Ottoman  himself.  Besides,  they  are 
exempted  from  military  service,  from  which  no  Mahometan  is 
excepted. 

From  the  earliest  times  many  of  the  high  offices  in  Turkey 
have  been  filled  by  Jews.  I  wish  I  could  say  that  their  worldly 
condition  is  equal  to  their  political  privileges  and  opportunities, 
but  it  is  not.  Perhaps  that  section  of  them  who  are  most 
advanced  in  material  goods  are  the  Jews  of  Salonica.  That  city 
contains  very  many  rich  Jews.  Some  of  them  are  millionaires.  In 
Bagdad  the  Jews  have  a  large  business,  and  are  the  traders  with 
the  East  Indies,  while  in  Smyrna  they  are  honorable  and  exten- 
sive merchants.  It  is  m  Constantinople  that  the  population  shows 
a  painful  contrast.  There  are  men  among  them  who  are  worth  a 
million  of  dollars.  But  the  general  cause  of  this  impoverishment 
can  be  traced  to  the  fact  that  they  have  not  turned  their  attention. 


JE  WISH  HABITS  AND  R  ULES.  \  g  5 

as  in  other  places,  to  commerce  and  other  kindred  adventures. 
In  Beirut  and  Damascus,  like  Smyrna,  they  are  the  exporting 
merchants,  and  their  work  shows  immense  fruit  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  wealth. 

In  many  parts  of  the  Orient  different  races  are  set  apart  one 
from  the  other.  Certain  quarters  are  given  to  certain  races, 
as  well  as  to  certain  trades  and  professions.  This  has  not,  how- 
ever, been  the  case  with  the  Jews  in  Constantinople.  Notwith- 
standing there  is  no  compulsion  upon  them  in  this  regard,  the 
Jews  in  Constantinople  seem  to  preserve  this  custom;  they  live 
as  neighbors  with  one  another  fraternally  in  special  quarters.  For 
instance:  Haskeiii  has  a  population  of  twenty-one  thousand  inhab- 
itants, who  are  nearly  all  Israelites;  Balat,  ten  thousand  ;  and 
Kouskoundjouk,  five  thousand.  These  are  suburbs  of  Constan- 
tinople. The  Jewish  houses  are  generally  clean,  though  many 
families  dwell  in  the  same  habitation.  As  in  New  York,  so  in 
•Constantmople,  the  families  are  extensive,  the  children  numerous 
— and  they  bid  fair  some  day  to  overflow  outside  of  Constan- 
tinople to  those  other  places  in  Syria  and  Judaea  which  are  so  well 
known  to  the  reader  of  the  Bible,  and  which  are  sacred  beyond 
all  other  associations  to  the  Hebrew  and  Christian. 

The  Jews  in  Turkey  are  orthodox.  There  is  scarcely  any 
schism  among  them.  They  observe  what  is  known  as  the 
:Spanish  rites.  The  Chief  of  their  religion  is  the  Grand-Rabbi. 
His  jurisdiction  extends  to  all  parts  of  the  Ottoman  empire. 
As  already  stated,  he  is  consulted  by  the  Ottoman  government 
and  the  Sultan  on  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  Hebrew  faith  and 
community.  Each  community  has  its  own  Grand-Rabbi,  who 
depends  on  the  Chief,  who  is  a  perpetual  resident  at  Constan- 
tinople. The  Consistory  of  the  Grand-Rabbi,  or  Hahem  Bashi, 
is  administered  under  an  organic  law.  This  law  is  considered  as 
a  sort  of  by-law  of  the  empire.  It  is  an  imperium  in  imperio. 
It  is  a  copy,  in  fact,  of  the  old  system  from  the  earliest  days  of 
history  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  empires,  whereby  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal and  civic  functions  of  certain  races  and  religions  were  reserved 
to  those  races  and  to  their  synods  and  councils  respectively. 

The  Jews  are  called  "  the  people  of  the  Book."  When  it  is 
remembered  that  so  much  of  the  Moslem  religion  embodied  m  the 
Koran  is  derived  from  the  Hebrew  Bible,  and  that  many  of 
•the  rites  and  ceremonies  connected  with  birth,  marriage  and 


1 96  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

death,  which  we  see  every  day  performed  in  the  mosques  and  ii 
the  cemeteries  of  the  Moslem,  were  taken  by  Mahomet  from  the 
Hebrews  of  the  East,  who  sojourned  among  the  deserts  of 
Arabia,  it  will  be  readily  believed  that  the  Hebrew  faith  and  the 
great  Hebrew  teachers,  prophets  and  psalmists  are  equally 
venerated  by  the  Moslem,  both  in  the  literature  of  his  religion 
and  in  the  ceremonies  of  his  faith. 

The  Moslem  prays  to  an  all-audient  God.  Although  he  turns 
in  the  direction  of  Mecca  to  make  his  prayer,  as  the  Jew  did 
toward  Jerusalem,  and  as  Mahomet  himself  at  one  time  did,  he 
looks  to  every  point  of  the  compass  in  recognition  of  the  ever- 
during,  invisible  and  ineffable  presence  of  Jehovah.  As  a  con- 
sequence of  this  similarity  between  the  Mahometan  and  the 
Hebrew  faith,  it  follows  that  no  imagery  is  worshipped,  that 
idolatry  is  not  permitted,  that  even  the  pictures  of  prophets  and 
saints,  which  adorn  and  give  beauty  to  the  churches  of  the 
Greeks  and  other  religions  of  the  East,  have  no  more  place  in 
the  mosque  than  in  the  synagogue. 

Polygamy  is  absolutely  forbidden  to  the  Israelites  in  Turkey. 
Although  I  have  been  told  that  there  are  some  in  Bagdad  who 
are  allowed  to  marry  under  the  Moslem  law,  still  they 
are  limited  to  four  wives.  The  nuptial  ceremony  is  that  which 
Solomon  depicted  in  his  fascinating  picture  of  the  bridal  canopy, 
with  its  wood  of  cedar,  its  pillows  of  silver,  its  bottom  of  gold, 
its  covering  of  purple,  and  in  the  midst  thereof  it  was  paved  with 
gold  for  the  fair  daughter  of  Jerusalem. 

There  are  no  mixed  marriages  among  the  Hebrews  in  Tur- 
key. Divorce  is  acknowledged,  as  it  is  always  acknowledged  among 
the  Moslems.  Govermental  authority  may  be  called  upon  to 
execute  the  sentence  of  the  Jewish  tribunals  on  matters  connected 
with  marriage  and  divorce.  As  a  general  rule,  the  Jews  marry 
when  they  are  twenty  or  twenty-two  years  old. 

One  thing  struck  me  as  peculiar  in  connection  with  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  Jews  in  Europe  and  in  the  Orient  While  the  Jews  in 
Austria,  Germany,  France,  Hungary  and  other  parts  of  Europe 
have  filled  offices  of  great  trust,  have  become  bankers,  editors, 
musicians,  orators,  legislators  and  artists,  distinguishing  them- 
selves  before  those  of  other  races  in  the  refinement  and  skill  with 
which  they  have  elevated  learning,  art  and  science,  )'et  in  Turkey 
they  seem  to  have  little  or  no   aspiration   for  and   association 


STA GNA  NC  Y  AMONG  THE  JE  WS.  1^7 

with  statecraft  and  other  elevating  pursuits.  At  least,  they  inter- 
est themselves  very  little  in  politics. 

They  like  the  liberal  ways  of  the  government,  which  are  in 
great  contrast  to  the  treatment  of  Hebrews  in  Russia,  Roumania 
and  Germany.  And  though  they  may  be  persecuted  in  a  social 
way  in  remote  places  in  Turkey,  where  the  central  government 
does  not  reach,  still  they  are  devoted  to  the  government  of  the 
country.  They  are  prompt  to  recognize  the  kindness  of  the  Sul- 
tan, and  to  show  their  loyalty  to  him.  I  will  not  say  that  the  Jews 
of  Turkey  are  the  equal  or  the  inferiors  of  the  Jews  of  other  parts 
of  Europe.  There  is  a  reason  for  this,  and  a  sad  one.  They 
have  partaken  of  the  general  stagnancy  which  belongs  to  the 
Orient,  owing  to  the  everlasting  Eastern  question,  which,  by  its 
unrest,  has  forbidden  men  to  reach  out  for  those  higher  aims  in 
life  that  are  the  result  of  stable  civilization. 

During  the  last  two  centuries  there  have  been  no  conspicuous 
literary  movements  among  the  Ottoman  Israelites,  but  since  the 
Israelitish  Alliance  has  begun  to  found  schools  and  interest  itself 
in  the  Hebrews  of  the  East,  there  is  a  marked  advancement,  not 
only  from  year  to  year,  but  from  week  to  week.  This  is  appar- 
ent in  Jerusalem,  as  I  shall  show. 

The  Turkish  language,  or  the  language  of  the  country,  is  not 
the  common  language  of  the  Jews.  Those  who  inhabit  Syria 
talk  Arabic,  and  those  in  Macedonia  modern  Greek.  Among 
the  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Jews  in  Turkey,  more  than 
two  hundred  thousand  talk  a  Spanish  idiom.  It  is  a  dialect  that 
has  been  much  corrupted.  But  the  great  body  of  the  Jewish 
traders  in  Constantinople  and  elsewhere  speak  French.  The 
truth  is,  that  nearly  all  the  people  of  the  Levant,  including  Turks 
themselves,  who  are  perhaps  more  reserved  on  this  head,  speak 
"many  languages.  They  speak  them  with  facility.  They  are 
taught  tongues  almost  before  they  learn  anything  else.  It  is  one 
of  the  marvels  in  the  East  that  it  is  almost  a  matter  of  inheritance 
that  even  the  vocal  organs  of  the  Levantine  seem  to  be  polyglot. 

There  are  about  six  Hebrew  newspapers  published  in  Turkey. 
Two  of  these  appear  in  Hebrew.  One  is  the  Habazeleth,  the 
other  Hatsevi.  The  others  are  Spanish,  but  with  Hebraic  char- 
acters. The  other  four  are  called  El  Telegraph  and  El  TiempOy  of 
Constantinople,  La  Burna  Esperanza,  of  Smyrna,  and  La  Epoca, 
of  Salonica.     Much  of  my  information  in  relation  to  the  Hebrew 


lo8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

people  comes  from  the  editor  of  the  Telegraph  at  Constantinople. 
That  journal  takes  quite  an  interest  in  political  ijffairs,  and 
though  under  the  censorship  of  the  government,  it  has  fallen 
under  no  objurgation,  as  have  other  newspapers  in  that  city. 

I  need  not  say  to  the  Hebrew  reader  that  the  customs  of  their 
race  in  and  around  the  Turkish  capital  are  still  patriarchal. 
Indeed,  most  of  the  Oriental  customs  connected  with  the  family 
are  of  that  quality.  The  family  life  is  always  exemplary.  The 
members  of  the  family  are  respectable,  and  rarely,  perhaps  never, 
is  there  to  be  found  the  Jewish  -  Spanish  woman  of  bad  fame. 
They  cling  with  great  fidelity  to  the  religion  of  their  ancestors. 
They  strictly  observe  all  Jewish  ceremonies,  and  yet  in  doing 
honor  to  their  wonderful  ancestral  code,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
they  will  not  become,  in  adhesion  to  their  belief,  either  bigoted 
or  fanatical. 

The  Jews  of  Constantinople,  not  being  blest  in  worldly  goods, 
cannot  make  those  offerings  for  the  poor  of  their  own  class,  or 
those  of  other  parts  of  the  empire,  which  the  European  and 
American  Jews  have  made  with  such  charitable  abundance, 
but  still  they  do  their  part  in  providing  for  the  needy  and  the 
afflicted. 

I  have  said  that  there  were  few  schisms,  if  any,  in  the  Jewish 
race  of  Turkey.  I  may  modify  this  by  stating  that  the  Karaites 
are  protesting  Jews.  They  do  not  agree  with  the  Talmud. 
There  are  few  families  of  them  ;  hardly  seventy-five  in  Haskeiii. 
They  live  in  special  quarters  by  themselves.  They  are  not  in 
communication  with  other  Jews.  They  are  not,  perhaps,  as 
brilliant  intellectually  as  other  Jews,  for  they  have  not  the  same 
opportunities  nor  advantages  for  education  and  philanthropy. 
In  fact,  they  are  disappearing,  from  one  cause  or  another,  while 
the  orthodox  Jew,  who  believes  in  the  Talmud,  seems  to  be 
improving  with  the  lapse  of  time.  In  Egypt,  however,  the  Kara- 
ites are  improving  with  wonderful  advancement.  There  are  some 
five  hundred  families  who  are  residents  of  Cairo. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  differences  of  opinion  m  this 
remarkable  faith,  one  may  stand  at  the  capital  of  the  Turkish 
empire,  where  for  thousands  of  years  commerce  has  made  its 
centre,  and  dynasties  and  policies  have  had  their  nucleus,  and 
observe  with  ah  interest  only  next  to  marvelous,  the  survival,  even 
in  the  midst  of  dire  persecution,  of  this  race  of  men.     The  He- 


HO,  FOR  JERUSALEM!  ign 

brews  are  associated  with  the  prophets  and  law-givers  and  poets 
and  heroes  of  a  history  which  has  no  peer  in  the  annals  of  man- 
kind. They  are  a  race  which,  transplanted  under  new  skies  to 
a  new  hemisphere,  under  institutions  of  liberality  and  tolera- 
tion which  they  have  rarely  known  in  their  wanderings  throughout 
the  earth,  have  elevated  their  scale  of  being.  Their  sons  and 
daughters  have  attained  an  intellectual  superiority  and  primal 
beauty  which  belong  to  the  chosen  people  of  God. 

If  I  should  select  the  one  special  trait  for  my  admiration  and 
exaltation  in  connection  with  the  Hebrews  whom  I  have  observed 
in  the  Orient,  I  should  say  it  was  their  grand  sentiment  of  love 
and  profound  veneration  for  the  sacred  city  of  Jerusalem.  Al- 
though scattered  throughout  the  empire  and  among  a  composite 
people  who  speak  even  seventy-two  languages,  from  Mt.  Sinai 
and  Bagdad  to  far  Albania  and  Bulgaria — wherever  they  are  and 
whatever  they  do,  their  harps  are  still  hung  upon  the  willows  of 
exile,  and  they  still  sing  of  Jerusalem  as  the  Psalmist  sung  :  "If 
I  forget  thee,  Jerusalem,  may  my  hand  forget  its  cunning  and  my 
tongue  cleave  to  the  root  of  my  mouth." 

They  cannot  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land,  but 
whenever  their  circumstances  allow,  they  move,  as  if  by  some 
strange,  divine  magnetism,  toward  their  Holy  City,  animated  by  a 
strong  and  ardent  desire  to  spend  upon  the  mountains  round 
about,  or  within  its  walls,  the  serene  evening  of  their  lives,  with 
the  hope  of  a  grand  immortality  beyond  the  grave. 

The  interest  in  the  Jews  of  the  East  does  not  centre  in  Con- 
stantinople, but  in  Jerusalem.  They  number  about  forty-two 
thousand  in  Palestine.  More  than  half  that  number  are  in  Jeru- 
salem. The  rest  are  in  Hebron,  Jaffa,  Saffed,  Tiberius,  Haifa, 
Akka  and  the  rest  scattered  throughout  the  country.  In  a.  d. 
1824,  there  were  only  thirty-two  Jewish  families  in  all  Jerusalem, 
and  but  three  thousand  in  all  Palestine.  This  increase  has 
come  in  the  last  twenty  years.  This  gain  has  been  in  spite 
of  interdictions  by  the  Turkish  government,  for  I  think  that  that 
government  has  had  an  apprehension  lest  there  should  be  He- 
brew colonies  formed  in  their  old  beloved  land.  Four-sevenths 
of  these  Jews  are  Askenazim.  They  are  of  the  class  to  which 
the  Jews  of  Russia,  Germany,  Austria  and  the  Danubian 
provinces  belong.  The  rest  are,  like  the  Jews  from  Constan- 
tinople, of  Spanish-  descent  from   Spain,  Morocco,  Algiers  and 


200  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Tripoli.  It  has  always  been  known  that  a  large  settlement  of 
Jews  has  existed  in  the  southwest  of  Arabia.  Doubtless  from 
these  Mahomet  learned  most  of  the  incidents  and  doctrines  which 
he  taught  in  the  Koran.  These  Jews  from  the  desert  have  been 
isolated.  They  were  of  the  tribe  of  Gad,  and  until  recently  have 
had  no  communication  with  other  Jews.  From  the  time  of  their 
expulsion  from  their  tribal  lands  east  of  the  Jordan,  more  than 
seven  hundred  years  before  Christ,  they  have  lived  like  the  Arabs 
of  the  desert.  They  seem  to  have  been  impelled  toward  Jerusa- 
lem, by  a  belief  that  the  time  of  the  Messiah  had  come,  and  that 
It  was  the  will  of  Jehovah  that  they  should  be  among  the  first 
to  appear  at  their  national  restoration.  They  are  distinguished 
from  many  of  the  Jews  of  Palestine  by  peculiar  traditions  and 
traits,  which  point  with  certainty  to  their  early  Hebraic  origin  and 
seclusion.  They  are  said  to  be  a  simple  race  and  to  have  a 
chastened  bearing. 

There  is  a  small  community  in  Jerusalem  known  as  Caraim. 
They  are  called  "the  partisans  of  the  text."  They  deny  the 
authority  of  the  Talmud.  Their  little  synagogue  is  underground. 
It  is  of  great  antiquity,  and  one  of  the  most  interesting  places  of 
worship  in  Jerusalem,  having  much  of  the  interest  which  clings 
about  the  antique  form  of  worship  that  belongs  to  the  early  monks 
who  lived  in  caves.  The  body  of  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  however, 
are  called  orthodox.  They  defer  to  the  Talmud  and  other 
traditional  teachings.  They  are  opposed  to  change,  and  are 
distinguished  from  those  known  as  reformed  Jews,  who  have 
become  so  prominent,  rich  and  influential  in  America  and  Europe. 
The  Askenazim  cling  to  the  old  Jewish  customs.  They  do  not 
fall  in  naturally  with  the  people  among  whom  they  dwell,  as  do 
other  Jews.  They  differ  from  other  Jews  regarding  the  Mosaic 
law  as  well  as  the  Talmud.  Being  thrown  in  close  association 
with  the  Sephardim,  these  peculiarities  of  custom  and  taste  are 
more  noticeable. 

To  be  sure,  all  these  classes  are  Hebrews,  and  they  all  look 
for  the  approaching  jubilee,  when  their  country  will  be  restored  to 
them  and  a  Messiah  will  appear.  Another  class  of  Jews  are  those 
who  study  what  is  called  the  Kabala.  They  are  mystics.  It  is 
not  uncommon  in  the  East,  where  the  sky  is  deep  and  the  stars  have 
a  magical  influence,  and  contemplation  creates  devotion — the 
realm  from  which  all  the  religions  of  the  world  have  emanated — 


EMIGRATION  TO  JERUSALEM.  2OI 

that  the  strange  mysteries  of  creation  and  of  the  spiritual  nature 
should  have  a  secret  fascination.  The  language  of  the  Bible 
is  interpreted  by  them  somewhat  after  the  Swedenborgian 
method,  with  hidden  meanings  between  the  lines.  Miracles  are 
wrought,  or  supposed  to  be  wrought,  in  vindication  of  their  strange 
tenets. 

The  Askenazim  Hebrew  speaks  a  language  known  as  a  sort  of 
German  tongue,  it  is  a  compound  of  the  German,  Hebrew, 
Russian  and  other  languages.  Its  written  dialect  is  a  medium 
of  communication  for  nine- tenths  of  the  Jews  of  Europe.  That 
spoken  by  the  Sephardim  is  Spanish.  It  has  the  music,  purity 
and  dignified  flow  of  that  graceful  tongue.  The  Jews  from 
Arabia  speak  Arabic,  and  nearly  all  the  Palestine  Jews  have  some 
knowledge  of  Hebrew,  and  many  of  them  speak  it  with  great 
facility.  The  largest  portion  of  the  Jews  of  Palestine  are  Turkish 
subjects.  Many  of  them,  however,  register  at  the  Consulates  of 
their  native  land  and  preserve  their  foreign  citizenship.  It  is 
within  my  knowledge  that  this  custom,  however,  is  changing. 
They  are  enrolling  themselves  as  Turkish  subjects.  This  custom 
tends  to  propitiate  the  Turk,  who  has  always  feared  the  social 
regeneration  and  building  up  of  a  state  within  his  dominion.  I 
think  that  it  helps  the  Hebrew  to  be  more  self-respecting  as  well  as 
more  respected.  It  would  seem  as  if  they  believed  that  they  had 
come  to  stay  in  their  old  land  without  the  animus  revertendi. 

In  former  days  the  Jew  came  to  Jerusalem  when  he  was  in  old 
-age.  He  came  to  secure  the  special  blessings  which  should  follow 
a  burial  in  the  Holy  Land.  Now  young  men  are  coming,  and 
women;  in  fact,  families.  They  emigrate  as  our  emigrants  go 
West.  They  come  to  build  up  permanent  homes  for  themselves 
and  their  children.  Three-fourths  of  the  Jews  of  Palestine  are 
well  off.  They  live  upon  the  proceeds  of  invested  funds  or  busi- 
ness pursuits.  Wealthy  Jews  are  going  there.  The  remaining 
fourth  consists  of  old  persons.  They  are  supported  by  the  benev- 
olence of  their  co-religionists.  As  in  the  East  it  is  especially 
the  custom  and  tradition  from  the  earliest  days  that  beggars 
should  be  allowed,  as  an  incentive  to  charity,  so  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple are  not  an  exception  to  this  rule.  Many  of  them  are  found 
living  in  hovels  wretchedly  poor  and  pitiable.  Much  money  has 
been  raised  in  Europe  and  northern  Africa  to  assist  the  poor.  It 
is  called  the  Chalouka.  These  funds  were  not  exactly  as  charity,  for 


202  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

they  were  a  means  to  a  higher  end  than  the  sustenance  of  the 
physical  body.  They  were  intended  to  encourage  learning,  and 
the  beneficiaries  were  men  who  devoted  their  lives  to  Talmudic 
and  other  theological  studies.  This  charity  is  not  favorably  re- 
garded by  many  of  the  Jews  themselves.  I  have  been  told  that 
It  stimulated  a  spirit  of  scholastic  pride  and  gave  rise  to  discussion 
and  contention.  The  Jews  of  Europe,  while  extending  these 
benefactions  to  their  co-religionists,  have  given  it  another  direc- 
tion. Agricultural  colonies  and  the  industrial  schools  are  the 
main  objects  of  these  gifts.  The  most  encouraging  results  are 
expected  from  this  change  in  the  dispensation. 

1  have  said  before  that  there  is  an  imperium  in  imperio  within 
the  Turkish  realm.  This  has  existed  for  many  centuries.  There 
are  Jewish  judicial  tribunals  in  Judea,  and  these  have  power  to 
punish,  by  penalty  and  excommunication  from  the  synagogues, 
for  breaches  of  the  Jewish  law.  The  Turkish  government, 
especially  in  respect  to  the  domestic  relations  and  the  distri- 
bution of  property  and  estates,  assists  the  Jewish  ecclesiastical- 
tribunals  by  the  execution  of  their  judgments  and  by  other 
penalties. 

I  have  heard  it  said  in  America  that  the  Jews  are  fond  of 
litigation.  In  my  early  days  I  was  the  lawyer  of  a  large  number 
of  Jews  in  Cincinnati,  but  I  never  observed  this  attribute.  There 
is,  however,  but  little  litigation  among  Jews  in  the  East.  They 
settle  their  difficulties  before  the  Rabbins.  In  fact,  the  Rabbins 
have  much  to  do  with  the  internal  government  of  the  Jews  in 
Palestine. 

The  sects  which  I  have  described  have  among  them  six  hun- 
dred Rabbins.  The  chief  Rabbi  of  Jerusalem  belongs  to  the 
Sephardim.  The  Rabbins  engage  in  no  direct  business.  They 
are  assisted  from  abroad.  Many  of  them  have  official  incomes 
and  private  resources.  They  are  also  teachers,  readers,  judges, 
and  for  these  services  they  are  paid.  They  receive  money  for 
prayers  offered  on  anniversaries  of  deaths  and  for  the  sick. 
Many  of  these  ecclesiastics  visit  northern  Africa,  Asia,  Europe 
and  America,  to  collect  the  charity  to  which  I  have  referred. 

Charity  in  another  sense,  however,  belongs  to  Jerusalem. 
There  are  two  hospitals  with  forty  beds.  The  Rothschilds'  Hos- 
pital is  to  be  enlarged.  It  is  situated  without  the  walls. 
There   are  other  associations  in   Palestine   for  assisting  Jewish. 


EDUCA  TION  IN  JERUSALEM.  203 

women  and  the  poor  and  aged  Jews,  for  educational  purposes, 
and  orphanage,  as  well  as  for  the  loan  of  money  without  interest 
to  those  who  are  needy  and  enterprising.  The  Israelitish  Alli- 
ance is  endeavoring  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  these  operations,. 
which  are  oftentimes  limited  to  the  sects  to  which  I  have  referred. 
In  time,  through  its  influence  and  its  schools,  and  through  agencies, 
now  growing  immensely  in  influence  in  the  East,  many  of  these 
differences  growing  out  of  sectarianism  will  vanish. 

As  to  education,  it  has  generally  been  conducted  upon  the 
Turkish  standard,  which  is  almost  altogether  limited  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  Koran.  So  the  education  of  the  Jewish  children  was. 
formerly  confined  to  instruction  in  the  law  and  the  Talmud. 
The  divergence  from  the  old  modes  consists  in  branches  of 
general  study,  including  foreign  languages,  which  includes  the 
Arabic.  There  are  six  primary  schools  in  Jerusalem,  with  sevea 
hundred  pupils.  There  are  nearly  one  hundred  professors  of 
Talmudic  literature,  who  teach  in  private  houses  classes  num- 
bering from  five'  to  ten  scholars  each.  As  a  consequence  there 
are  advanced  schools,  like  our  own  high  schools. 

The  Rabbins  have  opposed  that  general  system  of  elementary 
education  of  which  America  has  been  the  champion.  But  it  has 
secured  a  foothold  in  Jerusalem,  and  is  approved  by  the  people. 
The  principal  school  of  this  elementary  character  was  established 
in  A.  D.  1882.  It  is  under  the  auspices  of  the  Israelitish  Alliance. 
That  Alliance  is  reaching  everywhere  around  the  world,  although, 
its  centre  and  direction  is  in  Paris.  After  much  opposition 
in  Jerusalem,  this  school  numbers  150  scholars.  It  is  thought 
that  it  will  soon  increase  tenfold.  It  could  be  thus  increased  if 
the  resources  would  allow.  In  addition  to  elementary  study,  the 
pupils  are  taught  Hebrew,  Arabic,  English  and  French.  The 
latter  is  the  principal  language  taught.  Workshops  have  been 
established  to  assist  the  pupils  in  various  grades.  Many  go  out 
from  the  school  and  earn  good  wages  as  the  result  of  their 
apprenticeship.  The  school  is  fast  outgrowing  its  present  limita- 
tions. Its  cost  during  the  year  a.  d.  1883,  up  to  the  1st  of  Septem- 
ber was  $7,200.  Never  was  there  a  more  splendid  opening  for  a 
race  whose  children  have  no  equal  in  all  that  makes  up  memory, 
reasoning,  imagination  and  judgment.  There  is  an  agricultural 
school  near  Jaffa.  It  was  established  by  the  Alliance  in  a.  d.  1869. 
It  has  737  pupils.     It  gives  a  general  education,  like  our  primary 


204 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


schools.  It  makes  practical  farmers.  It  has  a  great  future.  Its 
expenses  for  the  last  year  were  $9,800,  while  its  receipts  were 
^5,300.  It  will  soon  become  self-paying.  There  is  another 
school  of  the  Alliance  at  Haifa,  with  100  scholars,  which  was 
founded  in  1881.  I  cannot  too  highly  praise  the  Israelitish  Alli- 
ance, not  merely  because  I  am  partial  for  its  kind  words  toward 
myself,  a  stranger,  after  I  had  undertaken  to  expose  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  Hebrews  in  Russia,  but  for  its  benevolent  objects. 
Never  since  the  children  of  Israel  have  been  dispersed  over  the 
world  has  there  been  a  more  vigilant,  enterprising  and  useful 
institution.  It  was  established  under  the  auspices  of  the  great 
lawyer,  once  Minister  of  Justice  in  Paris,  M.  Cremieux.  I  found 
its  friends  and  officers  in  correspondence  in  Damascus  when  I 
was  there  several  years  ago.  Men  of  standing  and  wealth  gave 
it  their  help,  morally,  physically  and  pecuniarily.  The  Hebrews 
of  New  York  know  how  beneficent  and  far  reaching  are  its  bene- 
factions. From  its  current  contributions  and  its  invested  funds, 
which  for  the  six  months  ending  December  i,'i885,  amounted 
to  $47,000,  schools  have  arisen  and  workshops  for  technical 
instruction  throughout  the  Orient  and  northern  Africa. 

The  Alliance  endeavors  to  expunge  the  lines  which  divide  the 
Jews  into  sects,  reconciling  their  jarrings  and  bettering  their 
condition  among  the  nations  wherein  they  have  been  dispersed. 

Perhaps  no  more  difficult  task  could  be  undertaken  than  that 
which  endeavors  to  reconcile  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem  among 
themselves,  and  with  the  new  conditions  of  human  advancement. 
As  I  write  this  paragraph,  in  the  summer  of  1887,  I  am 
advised  that  the  two  journals  of  Jerusalem,  the  Habazeleth  and 
the  Hatzevi,  have  been  burned  by  the  Rabbis  of  the  Sephar- 
dim.  Why  were  the  black  candles  lit,  the  cornet  blown,  and  the 
journalists  accursed  ?  For  alleged  slander.  This  consisted  in 
calling  for  an  account  of  the  donations  and  their  disbursement. 
The  Hebrews  of  other  lands,  including  America,  are  laughing  at 
the  ceremony  of  ostracism  and  the  childish  anger  of  the  Rabbis. 
The  ban  has  been  tried  before,  on  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  but 
without  cutting  him  short  in  his  length  of  days.  Amsterdam 
once  tried  the  ban  against  Spinosa,  but  it  was  a  vain  bull  against 
a  comet  of  rare  brilliancy.  Recently  Baron  Edmond  de 
Rothschild  has  been  visiting  Palestine.  He  and  his  rich  family 
have  been  bountiful  to  the   Jews  of  Jerusalem,   but  when  the 


ISRAELITISH  ALLIANCE. 


205 


the  Baron  proposed  to  endow  a  school  where  something  besides 
the  Bible  and  the  Talmud  could  be  taught,  he  was  opposed  by 
the  unprogressire  Rabbins.  They  succeeded  in  their  efforts,  for 
the  school  closed  for  want  of  pupils,  as  the  Rabbins  petitioned 
the  Sultan  to  avert  this  attempt  to  wrest  Palestine  from  his  rule, 
in  the  interest  of  France  ! 

What  has  eclipsed  the  Hebrew  race?    Why  do  such  things  ex- 
cite our  special  wonder  ?    Surely  they  need  at  Jerusalem  a  Pres- 
'llllllltiiiiiiiiiii|m|ffiiipiiii    mill    I         I     i,'!!i:i;^^ii:ii;:ijefiiiiMiir 


A   HEBREW   FROM  JERUSALEM. 

byter  Omnium  Judaeorum — with  undisputed  authority,  such  as 
the  great  Sasportas,  the  eloquent  De  Silva,  the  learned  Abendana, 
or  the  accomplished  David  Nieto — who,  while  looking  to  the  select 
radiance  of  the  past  of  Judaism,  could  inspire  the  scattered  tribes 
with  the  glory  of  a  better  day  for  Jerusalem  and  their  race. 

The  Alliance  may,  in  time,  liberalize  this  Rabbinical  mass  at 
Jerusalem.  The  Jews  outside  of  Judaea  believe  in  its  methods. 
To  show  the  kindness  of   the  jjeople  toward  the  Israelitish  Alii- 


206  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

ance,  I  may  be  permitted  to  state  that  at  the  municipal  theatre 
of  the  Petits-Champs  in  Constantinople,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  French  Ambassador,  Count  Montebello,  a  charity  ball  was 
given  for  the  "  children  "  of  Israel.  Perhaps  it  would  surprise 
some  of  the  children  to  know  that  among  those  present  as 
a  committee,  there  were  Elias-Pasha  and  Isaac-Bey,  and  others  of 
the  Hebraic  type.  Some  of  these  are  thoroughly  interested  in 
the  vindication  of  their  race. 

The  reader  will  remember  the  Russian  and  other  persecutions, 
and  the  necessity  which  fell  upon  the  Jewish  race  throughout  the 
world  of  providing  for  the  refugees.  Then  it  was  that  the  Alliance 
became  useful,  not  merely  in  turning  the  tide  toward  Palestine — 
to  reach  which  there  were  many  obstacles,  as  I  am  personally 
a  witness,  but  to  our  own  country.  It  was  thought  by  many  to 
be  impracticable  to  send  these  Jews  to  Palestine  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  refugees  at  that  point.  It  is  thought  by  many  devout 
Jews  that  this  dispersion  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  is  a  posi- 
tive blessing. 

One  thing  is  observable  to  a  traveler  in  Judaea,  and  it  is  per- 
haps the  most  significant  and  interesting  fact  connected  with  the 
Jewish  re-occupation.  I  refer  to  the  agricultural  colonies,  of  which 
there  are  eight  at  present.  These  are  prosperous.  I  have  seen  the 
two  which  are  distant  from  Jaflfa  some  two  and  a  half  hours. 
They  were  established  about  ten  years  ago.  They  were  pioneer 
colonies.  They  now  number  five  hundred  and  fifty  souls,  princi- 
pally Russians.  They  have  a  farm  of  about  twenty-eight  hun- 
dred acres.  They  have  fifteen  thousand  vines,  thirteen  thousand 
olive-trees,  and  bid  fair  to  make  that  land  once  more  blossom  as 
the  rose. 

It  is  eighteen  hundred  years  since  the  new  dispensation.  Dur- 
ing that  time  most  remarkable  changes  have  taken  place  in  Pales- 
tine and  among  the  Jews.  History  records  the  humiliation  and  per- 
secution of  this  wonderful  people.  They  have  been  thought  by 
some  to  be  an  unseen  and  an  unknown  quantity  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  Quietly  and  without  ostentation,  by  some 
supernal  influence,  Jerusalem  at  last  is  becoming  through  its  new 
population,  a  Jewish  city.  A  majority  of  its  population  are  Jews. 
Its  trade  is  Jewish.  It  will  own  the  soil  of  Palestine  in  time. 
This  prosperity  has  inspired  many  with  the  hope  that  the  re- 
demption of  Israel  and  the  restoration  of  their  old  country  is 


AMEBIC  A,  THE  VINE  AND  FIG-TREE.  207 

•drawing  nigh.  Leaving  their  traffic  behind  them,  they  come  with 
their  own  handiwork  to  redeem  the  waste  places  of  Zion.  It 
would  almost  seem  beyond  belief,  but  considering  our  age  of 
physical  progress,  with  the  factors  of  electricity  and  steam,  it 
•does  not  seem  improbable  that  the  prophesy  will  be  fulfilled 
Tvhich  declares  that  in  the  last  days  "  Zion  shall  be  filled  with 
judgment  and  righteousness,  and  that  Jerusalem  shall  dwell  safely, 
.and  that  there  shall  be  power  upon  the  house  of  David,  and  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  the  spirit  of  grace  and  supplications. 
No  lion  shall  be  there,  nor  any  ravenous  beast  shall  go  up 
thereon  ;  it  shall  not  be  found  there.  But  the  redeemed  shall 
walk  there  ;  and  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return,  and  come 
to  Zion  with  songs,  and  everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads.  They 
•obtain  joy  and  gladness,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away. 
And  I  will  plant  them  upon  their  land  which  I  have  given  them, 
.«aith  the  Lord  my  God." 

Great  changes  are  taking  place  in  the  Orient.  The  Musco- 
vite is  ever  ready  to  move  down  upon  the  Bosporus.  The  great 
land  animal  challenges  the  great  colonial  empire  of  England 
in  Asia.  The  various  Powers  of  the  earth  are  moving  for  the 
aggrandizement  of  their  dynasties  and  boundaries.  And  shall 
Judsea  be  left  alone  ?  Shall  the  six  millions  of  the  Hebrew  race, 
which  have  given  so  much  to  civilization,  to  poetry,  to  finance 
and  to  religion,  be  alone  exempt  from  the  onward  movements  of 
our  time  ?  Shall  there  be  no  manifestation  of  the  great  powers 
of  the  earth  which  are  revolutionizing  mankind  at  the  centre  of 
our  earlier  theology  ? 

There  is  a  majestic  meaning  in  the  events  which  are  taking 
place  in  the  world.  They  point  with  no  unmistakable  finger 
toward  the  beautiful  walls  of  Jerusalem.  If  it  be  the  purpose  of 
Jehovah  to  return  the  Jews  to  Palestine,  why  may  not  the  ravening 
wolves,  which  have  driven  Israel  almost  to  despair,  and  which  have 
used  the  force  of  brutes  against  her,  be  balked  in  their  endeavor; 
so  that  the  hope  of  the  Hebrew  shall  have  realization  even  in  our 
time  ?  All  is  possible  with  Jehovah.  Seek  Him  that  maketh  the 
Pleiades  and  Orion  and  turneth  the  shadow  of  death  into  morning. 

But  until  that  day  doth  come,  America  seems  a  chosen  land 
for  a  chosen  people.  Here,  under  our  Constitution,  is  their  vine 
and  fig-tree. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EAST THE  CALIPHATE   AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES. 

By  the  word  Caliphate,  or,  more  correctly,  Halifate,  is  implied 
the  supreme  and  combined  political  and  religious  authority  of  the 
Ottoman  ruler.  The  title  of  Caliph  signifies  heir  or  successor. 
It  was  given  by  the  Prophet  to  his  disciples  or  successors.  These 
followers  started  from  one  end  of  Arabia  and  advanced  in  armed 
bodies,  with  irresistible  force,  as  far  as  Bagdad.  They  pro- 
claimed the  sacred  law  of  the  Koran  and  propagated  the  Moham- 
medan religion. 

The  first  Caliph  to  gain  distinction  was  the  Arab  leader,  Omer 
Ipni  Hatab.  In  a.  d.  637,  the  sixteenth  of  the  Hegira,  he  stormed 
Jerusalem.  Afterwards,  on  the  site  occupied  by  Solomon's  tem- 
ple, he  built  the  mosque  bearing  his  name.  It  still  remains,  in  an 
excellent  state  of  preservation. 

At  first  there  were  several  Caliphs.  The  title  was  arbitrarily 
assumed  by  the  chiefs  of  the  most  powerful  tribes  in  Africa  and 
Asia.  These  tribes,  though  they  became  united  by  the  bonds  of 
one  common  religion,  were  still  constantly  waging  war  against 
one  another.  The  strife  often  ended  in  the  almost  total  extermina- 
tion of  the  weaker  side.  This  was  the  fate  of  the  tribe  of  the 
Fatimies.  They  were  in  the  course  of  time  exterminated  by  the 
Devlet  Eyoupie  tribe,  of  which  Yousouf  Salahedin,  Sultan  of 
Egypt,  is  said  to  have  been  the  founder.  This  latter  tribe  fell  a 
prey  to  the  superior  strength  of  the  Mamelukes.  These  in 
their  turn  were  vanquished  by  the  Circassians.  These  in  their 
turn  were  finally  subdued  by  the  Sultan  Selim,  of  Turkey.  In 
a.  d.  15 17  the  Sultan  Selim  conquered  and  became  master  of  the 
whole  of  Egypt.  He  was  officially  acknowledged  by  the  Cherii  of 
Mecca  as  protector  of  the  two  holy  cities  of  Islam,  viz. :  Mecca, 
where  the  Prophet  lies  buried,  and  Medina,  where  he  was  born. 
The  Turks  having  thus  subdued  the  Arab  tribes,  the  title  of 
Caliph  came  to  be  the  exclusive  hereditary  right  of  the  Sultan. 

2o8 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  KORAN. 


209 


who  is  also  styled  "Commander  of  the  Faithful."  His  right  to 
this  exalted  title  there  is  none  to  dispute,  since  the  fall  of  the 
Mahdi  and  other  pretenders. 

The  present  Turkish  dynasty,  as  we  have  seen,  was  founded 
in  the  thirteenth  century  by  Osman,  or  Othman.  The  father  of 
Osman  was  Erthogrul,  which  in  English  means  •'Straightfor- 
ward." The  tradition  goes,  among  Turks,  that  while  out  on 
a  journey  he  was  hospitably  entertained  at  the  house  of  an  Arab, 
This  Arab  was  greatly  venerated  among  his  countrymen  for 
his  learning  and  piety.  One  night  during  his  sojourn  with  this 
personage  Erthogrul  had  a  wierd  dream.  The  greatness  and  glory 
in  store  for  his  descendants  were  thus  revealed  to  him.  Before 
retiring  to  rest  he  had  noticed  his  host  taking  out  a  large 
volume  from  a  bookcase  and  reverentially  placing  it  on  a  high 
shelf  in  the  chamber  where  the  guest  was  to  sleep.  Erthogrul 
inquired  of  his  host  about  the  book.  He  was  informed  that  it 
was  the  Koran,  the  Sacred  Word  of  God  revealed  to  the  prophet 
Mahomet.  Erthogrul,  as  soon  as  his  host  had  withdrawn,  took 
down  the  book.  He  spent  the  entire  night  reading  it.  Ht  re- 
mained standing  up  all  the  time  in  a  most  respectful  attitude. 
When  in  the  early  morning  he  went  to  bed  and  fell  asleep  he  heard 
a  voice  which  said  to  him: 

"  For  that  thou  hast  done  reverence  to  my  everlasting  word, 
thy  sons  and  the  sons  of  their  sons  shall  receive  honor  upon  honor^ 
and  shall  be  glorified  in  all  ages  to  come." 

This  promise  began  to  be  redeemed  in  the  person  of  Os- 
man, the  eldest  son  of  Erthogrul.  Osman  embraced  a  military 
career.  He  showed  such  extraordinary  military  talent  and  per- 
formed so  many  unprecedented  feats  of  personal  valor  that  he 
soon  became  the  idol  of  his  followers.  He  gradually  succeeded 
in  organizing  them  into  a  regular  and  irresistible  army.  He  was- 
thus  enabled  to  conquer  and  acquire  for  himself  a  large  extent  of 
territory.  This  included  the  fortified  town  of  Karadja  Seher  and 
other  Byzantine  strongholds  in  Asia.  He  also  lent  his  aid  ia 
defeating  the  enemies  of  Aladdin,  the  Sultan  of  Iconium.  In 
recognition  of  this  service  Osman  received  from  the  latter  the  title 
of  Emir  and  the  insignia  of  princely  rank,  consisting  of  a  standard, 
a  drum,  the  tail  of  a  horse  and  a  sabre.  These  insignia  are  still 
preserved  with  other  sacred  relics  in  the  Imperial  Treasury  at 
Constantinople. 


2  I O  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

After  these  conquests  Osman  became  Sultan  of  the  Turks,  or 
Osmanlis,  as  they  preferred  to  be  called  in  honor  of  their  leader. 
At  this  juncture  further  warfare  is  suspended,  in  order  to  give 
himself  and  his  soldiers  rest.  He  attends  to  the  internal  organ- 
ization of  his  newly  acquired  kingdom.  He  begins  a  vigorous 
reform  by  transforming  the  Christian  churches  in  the  town  of 
Karadja-Hissar  into  mosques.  He  appoints  Imams,  or  priests, 
to  perform  the  services,  and  a  Molla,  or  religious  judge.  He 
orders  Friday  to  be  kept  as  a  day  of  rest  and  prayer.  He  strikes 
the  first  Turkish  coins  with  his  superscription.  He  builds  Yeni- 
Seher,  or  New-town.  Here  he  makes  his  capital.  He  appoints 
his  father-in-law,  the  Sheik  Edepali,  as  Mufti. 

Osman  reigns  .for  twenty-seven  years.  On  his  death  he  is 
succeeded  by  his  second  sOn,  the  Sultan  Orchan.  The  elder 
brother,  Aladdin,  conscious  of  his  own  inexperience  and  diffi- 
dence in  military  matters,  makes  over  the  right  of  succession, 
being  content  to  occupy  the  subordinate  post  of  Vizier.  This 
office  was  specially  created  for  Aladdin.  The  word  Vizier  in 
Arabit  means  a  carrier.  In  this  instance  it  signifies  the  carrier 
of  the  charges  of  the  State. 

Orchan,  unlike  his  brother,  was  like  his  father.  He  was  an 
intrepid  warrior.  While  his  father  was  still  living  he  made  several 
successful  campaigns.  In  the  course  of  one  of  these  he  took 
Broussa.  He  largely  added  to  his  dominions.  He  was  the  founder 
of  the  Yhii-tcharis,  i.  e.,  Janizaries.  The  strength  of  this  corps 
was  at  first  limited  to  one  thousand  men.  In  after  years  it  grad- 
ually increased  to  forty  thousand  warriors.  Besides  the  Ye'ni- 
Icharis,  the  Turkish  army  consisted  originally  of  a  number  of  bat- 
talions of  regular  infantry.  These  are  called,  in  Turkish,  piades. 
Their  regular  infantry  went  by  the  name  of  azap.  The  spahids  are 
regular  cavalry  and  the  akindjis  are  irregular  horsemen. 

The  prophet  Mahomet  was  born  in  Medina,  in  central  Ara- 
bia. He  died  in  Mecca,  where  his  tomb  still  exists.  It  is  in  the 
custody  of  the  Cherif  or  High  Priest  of  Mecca.  The  office  of 
Cherif  of  Mecca  has  been  hereditary  in  the  same  family  for  ages. 
The  Sultan's  approval  of  the  appointment  of  a  new  Cherif  is  a 
matter  of  form. 

Mahomet  was  a  driver  of  camels.  While  following  this  avoca- 
tion he  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  monk  from  the  Monastery 
of  St.  Catherine  on  Mount  Sinai.    The  monk,  it  is  said,  fore- 


MAHOMET  AMONG  THE  MONKS.  2  I  I 

told  to  Mahomet  the  great  eminence  to  which  he  would  attain. 
In  consequence  of  the  revelation,  he  asked,  in  advance,  for  Ma- 
homet's indulgence  in  favor  of  the  Christian  community  and  cer- 
tain privileges  for  the  monastery  of  St.  Catherine  on  Mount  Sinai. 
Mahomet  gave  the  promises. 

According  to  the  Turkish  tradition,  Mahomet,  acting  under  a 
sacred  inspiration,  abandoned  his  trade  of  camel-driver.  He 
retired  to  a  secluded  hostelry.  There  he  spent  his  time  in  prayer, 
religious  meditation  and  fasting.  It  was  while  thus  engaged  that  an 
angel  appeared  to  him  one  night,  and  delivered  to  him  the  Koran. 
Mahomet,  in  his  turn,  communicated  its  precepts  to  his  disciples, 
whom  he  named  HoulifaL  These  followers,  in  a  very  short  time, 
swelled  in  numbers  to  such  an  extent  that  they  soon  constituted 
a  powerful  and  well-disciplined,  if  not  properly  organized,  army. 
At  the  head  of  this  army  Mahomet  started  on  his  religious  expe- 
dition, proclaiming  the  new  faith.  This  comprised  a  belief  in 
-one  God,  and  in  Mahomet  as  the  prophet  and  emissary  of 
that  God. 

In  the  course  of  his  conquests  and  triumphal  march  through 
Arabia  and  Syria,  Mahomet  came  to  Mount  Sinai  ;  there  he  again 
met  his  old  friend  the  monk  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Catherine. 
Having  reminded  Mahomet  of  his  former  promise,  the  monk 
■obtained  from  him  an  "  actinamen,"  ov  official  act.  This  con- 
ferred upon  the  monastery  in  question  the  promised  privileges, 
and  upon  the  Christians  in  general  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion.  The  actinamen  was  dictated  by  Mahomet  himself.  It 
was  taken  down  by  one  of  his  followers,  Ali  Amboudalip.  As 
Mahomet  could  not  write,  he  made  his  mark  on  the  document. 
He  dipped  his  hand  m  the  ink  and  brought  it  down  on  the  paper, 
leaving  thereon  the  impression  of  his  five  fingers.  This  incident 
is  commemorated  in  the  "  foug/ira  "  or  Imperial  ensign,  which  may 
be  seen  on  every  Turkish  official  document  and  coin  up  to  the 
present  day.  There  is  another  origin  given  in  a  former  chapter 
for  the  /oug/ira,  but  this  is  as  veritable  as  the  other.  It  appears 
in  the  signature  of  the  Sultan  in  the  frontispiece.  It  is  literally  a 
sign -manual,  with  a  slight  difference  for  each  Sultan  or  Caliph 
The  present  Sultan  has  a  design  below  the  signature. 

The  document  was  kept  at  St.  Catherine's  monastery  in  Mount 
Sinai  until  a.  d.  15 17.  Then  the  Sultan,  Selim  I.,  took  it  into  his 
oven  possession  as  a  sacred  relic.     He  gave  in  exchange  for  it  an 


212  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

authenticated  copy,  certified  by  hirtiself.    This  is  still  preserved. 
It  bears  the  following  heading: 

"  This  paper  has  been  written  by  Mahomet,  the  son  of  Abdul- 
lah, and  Emissary  of  God,  the  Guardian  and  Preserver  of  the 
Universe,  to  all  of  his  nation  and  religion,  to  be  a  true  and 
sacred  grant  for  the  race  of  the  Christians  and  the  offering  of  the 
Nazerites."  Is  not  this  the  fountain  and  origin  of  the  *'  Capitu- 
lations '  and  toleration  toward  the  Christian  and  other  sects? 

The  Koran,  as  proclaimed  by  Mahomet  and  his  disciples,  was 
subsequently  collated  and  expounded  by  two  Imams  named 
Azam  and  Safi.  Those  of  the  Mussulmans  who  faithfully  follow 
the  teachings  of  these  two  holy  men  are  styled  Soonites  ;  that 
is,  the  orthodox  or  true  believers.  All  those  who  have  adopted 
the  theories  of  other  expounders  of  the  Sacred  Book  go  by  the 
names  Mehzembis  or  Kiafifir;  that  is,  heretics  and  unbelievers. 
The  Persians  who  follow  the  doctrines  of  AH,  son-in-law  of 
Mahomet,  and  some  of  the  Mussulman  sects  in  the  East  Indies, 
are  of  the  latter  class.  The  Turks,  and  especially  the  descendants 
of  Osman,  pride  themselves  on  being  the  only  true  believers.  A 
sect  among  the  Turks  bears  the  name  of  Fatimie.  It  is  so  named 
after  Mahomet's  daughter  Fatima,  who  is  held  in  great  respect 
among  Mussulmans.  It  is  related  that  as  Mahomet  was  lying  at 
the  point  of  death  in  his  harem,  the  most  prominent  of  his  lieuten- 
ants assembled  outside.  They  were  anxious  to  hear  his  last  instruc- 
tions. Fatima  came  out  to  them  bearing  the  Prophet's  standard. 
She  handed  it  to  them,  saying  : 

"  This  is  Mahomet's  last  wish.  Take  this  standard  and  march 
forward  !" 

This  standard  is  still  preserved  in  a  golden  case  in  the  Impe- 
rial treasury  at  Constantinople.  It  is  of  a  green  color.  It  is  torn 
to  shreds  and  attached  to  a  kind  of  bayonet.  It  is  never  brought 
out  except  on  occasions  of  great  emergency,  when  a  sacred  war  is 
declared.  Then  every  true  Mussulman  is  expected  to  take  his 
place  in  the  ranks  and  fight  for  his  religion.  The  last  time  it 
was  displayed  was  when  the  Sultan,  Mahmoud  II,,  destroyed  the 
Janizaries. 

The  Mussulman  religion  accepts  and  acknowledges  the  authen- 
ticity and  truth  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.    It  recognizes  Christ  as  a 
prophet  sent  by  God.    It  altogether  rejects  the  history  of  his  Cruci- 
fixion and  Resurrection.   Islam  has  borrowed  many  religious  usages 


PRA  YER,  ABLUTION  AND  FASTING.  2  1 3 

from  the  Old  Testament;  such  as  the  circumcision,  ablution  before 
prayer,  and  others.  A  true  Mussulman  must  make  his  ablution 
and  perform  his  devotions  five  times  a  day.  The  washing  before 
prayer  is  called  in  Turkish  apti,  and  the  prayer  itself  namaz. 
The  five  daily  prayers  are  styled:  Sabah  namaz,  morning  prayer; 
Oili  namaz,  noon  prayer  ;  Kenti  namaz,  afternoon  prayer;  Axam 
namaz,  evening  prayer  ;  and  GuedjS  namaz,  night  prayer.  At  the 
time  fixed  for  each  service  the  Hodja,  or  priest,  ascends  to  the 
minaret  of  the  mosque  and  calls  the  faithful  to  prayer.  If  prevented 
from  going  to  the  mosque,  a  Mussulman  performs  his  devotions 
wherever  he  happens  to  be  at  the  moment  the  Hodja' s  call  is 
heard.  In  his  house,  in  his  shop,  or  even  in  the  public  street,  he 
is  wholly  indifferent  to  the  curious  sight  he  may  present  to 
passing  strangers.  Boatmen,  with  passengers  on  board,  will  often, 
■on  hearing  the  call  to  prayer,  leave  their  oars  and  go  through 
their  devotions.  They  will  do  this  quite  regardless  of  the  incon- 
venience of  passengers  or  the  danger  from  passing  steamboats. 

Ablution  must  inevitably  precede  prayer.  The  hands  must 
be  washed  first;  then  the  arms  up  to  the  elbows;  then  the  face, 
the  ears,  the  mouth,  the  top  of  the  head  and  the  feet.  If  boots 
•difficult  to  take  off  are  worn,  then  the  boots  must  be  washed. 
Where  there  is  no  water,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  desert,  the  ablu- 
tions may  be  performed  with  fine  sand.  This  washing  before 
prayer  is  a  religious  rite.  He  that  washes  is  cleansed  from  sin. 
He  is  thus  rendered  worthy  to  address  himself  in  prayer  to  God. 

The  Mussulmans  keep  Friday  as  a  day  of  rest.  As  stated, 
this  was  ordained  by  the  Sultan,  Osman  I.,  the  founder  of  the 
present  dynasty.  Of  other  religious  festivals,  the  most  important 
are  the  Bairam,  which  is  as  nearly  as  possible  an  equivalent  for 
our  Easter.  It  is  preceded  by  a  whole  month  of  fasting,  called 
Ramazan,  or  sacred  month.  This  fasting  is  observed  only  in 
the  daytime,  say  from  4  a.  m.  to  8  p.  m.  At  the  latter  hour,  every 
day  during  Ramazan,  a  cannon  announces  its  end.  The  daily  fast 
is  generally  broken  at  sunset  with  an  olive  and  a  cigarette.  Then 
follows  a  rich  repast.  This  is  succeeded  by  another  at  2  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  At  4  o'clock  in  the  morning  another  gun  is  fired 
to  warn  the  faithful  to  cease  eating.     Then  the  day's  fast  begins. 

The  fast  is  made  obligatory  by  law.  The  law  prohibits  not 
•only  eating,  but  drinking,  even  of  water.  Smoking  is  also  for- 
bidden.    Under  such    conditions,  it  can   be   understood    that 


214  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

little  or  no  work  is  done  during  this  month.  The  government 
offices  are  open,  but  business  is  practically  suspended.  On  the 
15th  day  of  Ramazan  occurs  the  ceremonial  of  the  Hirkai  Sherif, 
or  Worshipping  of  the  Sacred  Mantle  of  the  Prophet.  On  the 
morning  of  that  day,  the  Sultan,  according  to  immemorial  custom, 
proceeds  in  great  state  to  the  palace  of  Top  Capou  in  StambouL 
He  is  followed  by  the  royal  cortege,  the  procession  being  lined 
on  either  side  by  troops.  The  palace  is  the  ancient  residence  of 
the  Byzantine  emperors.  The  sacred  relics  and  treasures  of  the 
empire  are  kept  here.  Here,  in  a  special  apartment,  enveloped 
in  precious  covers  and  safely  locked  in  a  magnificent  coffer  of 
ebony,  is  preserved  what  is  believed  to  be  a  mantle  worn  by  the 
Prophet  on  state  occasions.  On  his  progress  to  the  palace,  the 
Sultan  is  accompanied  by  the  Imperial  princes  and  the  dignita- 
ries and  officers  of  state.  He  is  conducted  to  this  sacred  apart- 
ment. Here,  after  the  recitation  by  the  Imams  of  the  prayers, 
appropriate  to  the  occasion,  the  Padishah,  in  his  quality  of 
Caliph,  proceeds  to  open  with  his  own  hands  the  coffer  containing 
the  mantle.  He  takes  it  out  from  its  many  covers.  He  presses 
the  sacred  relic  to  his  lips.  He  then  steps  aside,  while  all  his 
followers,  including  the  Grand  Vizier,  the  ministers,  the  members- 
of  the  Imperial  household,  the  superior  military  and  naval 
officers,  and  the  civil  employees  up  to  a  certain  rank,  go  in  turn 
and  according  to  the  order  of  their  rank,  through  the  ceremony  of 
kissing  the  mantle.  When  the  Sultan  retires,  the  faithful,  if  they 
desire,  are  admitted  to  make  their  devotions  to  the  sacred  relic. 
It  is  kept  exposed  for  this  purpose  fifteen  days. 

The  Ottoman  code,  with  the  exception  of  certain  concessions 
made  in  recent  years  regarding  judicial  cases  between  Ottoman 
subjects  and  foreigners,  is  based  entirely  on  the  religious  law  or 
precepts  of  the  Cheri.  Jurisdiction  in  all  strictly  religious  matters- 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  Sheik- Ul-Islam,  who  is  the  Primate  of 
Turkey,  and  of  his  subordinates.  Among  the  latter  are  the  Muf- 
tis, or  bishops  ;  the  Imams,  or  priests  ;  and  the  Hodjas,  teachers- 
or  professors  of  theology.  The  administration  of  civil  and 
penal  law  is  entrusted  to  the  body  of  Ulemas.  These  are  men 
learned  in  the  law.  From  among  them  are  chosen  the  Mollahs, 
or  religious  judges  ;  the  Mudirs,  or  mayors  ;  and  the  Kaimakams, 
who  are  prefects  or  sheriffs.  To  the  religious  order  belongs  a 
body  called  Hafouz.     These  learn  the  Koran  by  heart.    They  are 


MONKISH  MOSLEM  ORDERS. 


215 


considered  as  the  guardians  of  the  Sacred  Book.  As  in  the 
Christian  Church,  so  also  in  the  Mussulman  religion  there  are 
several  orders  of  monks  ;  they  are  called  dervishes.  Their  mon- 
asteries are  called  tdk^s  in  Turkish.  Unlike  the  Christians,  who 
seek  the  most  secluded  spots  whereon  to  build  their  monasteries, 
the  dervishes  prefer  to  erect  their  houses  in  the  very  centres  of 
the  large  towns.     There  is  also  an  order  of  wandering  dervishes. 


A  MOSLEM  READING  THE  KORAN. 


These  have  no  fixed  place  of  residence.  They  go  about  bare- 
footed and  bareheaded ;  they  never  comb  their  hair  or  beard  ;  they 
live  mostly  on  alms,  which  are  freely  bestowed  upon  them  by  ths 
faithful. 

The  mosques  are  neither  built  by  the  state  nor  by  subscription. 
For  the  most  part,  they  are  built  by  the  Sultans  or  the  Valid6 
Sultanas;  that  is,  the  mothers  of  the  reigning  Sultan.  This  Sultana 


2  I  6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

is  venerated  as  the  veritable  Queen.  The  Padishah's  consorts 
are  only  secondary  to  her. 

Mosques,  of  smaller  size  and  less  imposing,  are  often  built  by 
private  individuals.  There  is  said  to  be  a  mosque  in  some  part 
of  Turkey  (I  forget  the  name  of  the  locality)  called  Sankim 
Yedim  Dja?ni.  It  is  called  "  The  mosque  of  the-same-as-if-I-had- 
eaten-it."  This  curious  appellation  the  mosque  owes  to  the  fact 
of  its  having  been  built  by  a  thrifty  individual,  who  confined  his 
expenses  to  the  most  absolute  necessaries  of  life.  Whenever  his 
eye  caught  anything  that  tickled  his  palate,  but  which  he  con- 
sidered that  he  could  well  do  without,  he  would  go  up  to  the 
vender  of  the  article,  and  bargain  hard  until  he  obtained  his  own 
price,  then  he  would  walk  away  home.  There,  taking  out  the 
money  he  would  have  had  to  pay  had  he  bought  the  article,  he  put 
it  in  a  separate  box  saying,  "  Just-the-same-as-if-I-had-eaten-the- 
thing  !"  By  this  method  he  economized  in  ten  years  sufficient 
money  to  build  a  mosque  of  fair  size  and  structure. 

What  came  from  this  strange  race  of  soldier-nomads  and 
zealous  religionists,  or,  rather,  from  the  creed  of  Islam  established 
by  the  camel-driver,  of  which  they  were  the  champions;  what 
came  through  that  ■'  pure  religion  revealed  by  God  to  Abraham" — 
may  be  observed  more  in  detail  as  we  particularize  in  the  next 
chapter.  How  far  the  adoption  of  Monotheism — with  an  authorita- 
tive prophet,  from  whom  there  was  no  appeal — alienated  the  faith 
of  the  East  from  the  Law  of  Moses  and  the  teaching  of  the  Naz- 
arine,  will  appear  in  the  sequel.  If  we  should  judge  of  a  faith  by  its 
successes,  it  has  a  wonderful  virtue.  When  the  Prophet  began  his 
sacred  war  in  a.  d.  623  by  rallying  314  followers  against  double 
that  number  of  Meccans,  who  could  have  dreamed  that  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eighth  century  his  disciple,  Abderrahman,  would 
rally  a  force  of  400,000  men  upon  the  plains  of  distant  France;  or 
that  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  another  devotee  should 
conquer  the  finest  physical  and  commercial  centre  and  political 
and  religious  capital  of  the  world  !  Who  could  have  believed 
then  that  this  faith,  under  successive  Caliphs,  would  refine  the 
nations  of  Europe  by  the  introduction  of  mathematics  and  chem- 
istry, chivalry  and  art,  and  dominate  over  at  least  160,000,000 
people  of  our  earth  !  True,  this  faith  may  have  allured,  by  its  per- 
suasive and  sensuous  appeals,  and  glowing  and  extatic  visions  of 
the  unknown  world,  and  it  may  enchant  the  pagans  of  Central  Asia 


MOSQUES  IN-  AMERICA.  2  I  7 

and  interior  Africa,  but  was  it  less  potent  amidst  the  culture,  gal- 
lantry and  intellect  of  Europe  in  its  mediaeval  centuries  ?  Now, 
what  do  we  perceive  on  the  horizon  of  its  future  ?  In  the  regions  of 
the  Soudan,  Borneo,  Ghana,  Tookroor,  Boosa,  Berissa,  Wawa  and 
Kiama,  even  unto  Timbuctoo,  it  is  the  established  religion.  It 
encroaches  upon  the  domains  of  European  powers  in  western 
Africa.  Its  schools  and  mosques  light  the  pathway  of  the  De 
Brassas  and  Stanleys  through  undiscovered  countries.  Fresh 
tribes  flock  to  the  standard  of  the  Prophet,  whose  religion  to 
them  is  better  than — none. 

If  this  faith  is  failing  in  Europe,  if  Algiers  and  Tunis  succumb 
to  France,  if  Persia  should  yield  to  Russia,  Egypt  to  England, 
Morocco  to  Spain,  Zanzibar  to  Portugal,  and  Abyssinia  to  Italy, 
the  Mahometan  still  holds  the  sacred  cities  of  Jerusalem  and  Mec- 
ca, and  the  water-ways  of  the  Bosporus  and  the  Euphrates.  He 
predominates  in  Asiatic  Turkey,  Afghanistan,  Beloochistan,  Ara- 
bia, a  great  part  of  India,  and  bids  fair  to  control  what  there  may 
be  of  religious  faith  in  Africa.  Surely  this  is  a  spiritual  realm, 
extensive  enough  for  one  Father  of  the  Faithful. 

The  Sultan,  rather  in  his  capacity  of  Caliph,  once  asked  the 
author  : 

"Are  there  no  Mahometans  in  America?  Could  I  build  a 
mosque  for  them  in  your  country  ? ' ' 

My  response  was  rather  nebulous  and  diplomatic.     I  replied  : 

"  I  am  not  aware  of  any  Mahometan  body  of  people  sufficient 
to  constitute  a  mosque.  If  there  be  any,  I  should  find  them  in — 
in — in — San  Francisco.  Your  Majesty,  under  our  institutions, 
would  find  no  impediment  to  building  a  mosque,  for  our  code 
allows  the  exercise  of  any  religion.  It  tolerates  even  the  atheist. 
In  this  regard  it  is  based  on  the  liberalities  of  Your  Majesty's 
'  Capitulations,'  which  forbid  any  constraint  from  the  state  upon 
the  conscience  and  soul." 

Thereupon  I  mentioned  to  the  Sultan  that  I  had  read  some 
accounts  of  the  bad  treatment  of  the  Moslems  in  the  south  of 
Africa,  from  the  bigoted  incursions  of  the  Dutch  or  English. 
He  made  a  memorandum  of  the  incident,  as  a  faithful  Caliph 
of  an  extensively  accredited  faith. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

RELIGIONS   OF   THE    EAST  :    MOSLEM. 

It  will  not  do  for  the  Puritan,  the  Calvanist,  or  the  Catholic — 
Anglican  or  Roman — or  any  one  who  boasts  of  the  simplicity 
of  his  Christian  faith,  to  criticise  too  harshly  the  faith  of  the 
Mahometan.  The  Calvinist  will  find  much  to  encourage  him  by 
the  study  of  the  Koran.  So  with  any  one  who  believes  in  the 
unity  of  God  and  discards  the  Trinity.  The  mind  which  accepts 
the  idea  that  God  gave  tables  of  commandments  unto  Moses,  at 
the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the  golden  calf,  cannot  well  deny 
that  there  was  something  sublime  in  the  divine  rage  of  the  icono- 
clastic Moslem  when,  with  cimeter  and  battle-axe,  he  destroyed 
the  splendid  effigies  of  Greek  art  and  the  colored  pictures  of  the 
Egyptian  tombs  and  temples. 

Without  preface,  let  me  give  the  main  prescripts  of  the  code 
of  Mahomet.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Hamlin's  book,  "Among  the  Turks," 
has  a  fair  summary.  If  the  code  be  not  worthy  of  a  God,  it  is 
worthy  of  a  prophet.     It  is  as  follows  : 

The  first  article  asserts  the  fundamental  principles  and  sources 
of  knowledge,  and  the  creation  of  the  world  ;  and  the  second, 
that  the  Creator  of  the  world  is  God,  Allah  ;  that  He  is  one  and 
eternal,  that  He  lives,  is  all-powerful,  knows  all  things,  fills  all 
space,  sees  all  things,  is  endowed  with  will  and  action  ;  that  He 
has  in  Himself  neither  form,  nor  figure,  nor  bounds,  nor  limits,  nor 
number,  nor  parts,  nor  multiplications,  nor  divisions,  since  He 
is  neither  body  nor  matter  ;  that  He  exists  of  Himself,  without 
generation,  dwelling-place  or  habitation  ;  outside  of  the  empire 
of  time  ;  incomparable  in  His  nature  as  in  His  attributes,  which 
without  being  exterior  to  His  essence,  do  not  constitute  it. 
Thus  God  is  endowed  with  wisdom,  power,  life,  force,  understand- 
ing, regard,  will,  action,  creation,  and  the  gift  of  speech.  This 
speech,  eternal  in  its  essence,  is  without  letters,  without  char- 
acters, without  sounds,  and  its  nature  is  opposed  to  silence. 

These  teachings  of  the  Koran — its  angels  and  genii,  its  peris 
and   fates,   its   heaven   and   hell,   its   predestination,  death   and 


SEi\5UOUSAESS  OF  THE  KORAN. 


219 


resurrection,  and  the  duties  of  its  devotees  to  spread  the  doctrine 
of  Islam,  with  its  pious  practices,  such  as  prayer,  ablution,  fast- 
ing* pilgrimages,  abstinence  from  unclean  meats  and  from  intoxi- 
cating liquors — these  elevate,  almost  as  much  as  the  promised 
sensual  enjoyments  depress,  the  Mahometan  religionists.  Is  it 
owing  to  some  infirmity  of  our  nature  that  the  body  of  mankind 
are  predisposed  to  the  enjoyment  of  sensuous  ideas?  These 
ideas,  in  a  large  measure,  control  their  action,  and  give  to  it 
impulsive  force.  When,  therefore,  Mahomet  charged  his  devotees 
to  pursue  the  mfidel  even  unto  death,  with  force  and  arms,  he 
gave  them  roseate  promises.  While  these  promises  have  done 
much  to  promote  the  temporal  power  of  his  religion,  they  have 
done  more  to  forward  its  dissolution.  The  inquiry  has  often 
been  made,  "  What  part  of  the  Koran  promises  paradise  to  the 
triumphant  Mahometan  ?  "  I  make  the  best  quotation  possible  as 
an  answer  : 

"The  whole  earth  will  be  as  one  loaf  of  bread,  which  God 
will  reach  to  them  like  a  cake  ;  for  meat  they  will  have  the  ox, 
Balam,  and  the  fish,  Nun,  the  lobes  of  whose  livers  will  suflSce 
70,000  men.  Every  believer  will  have  80,000  servants  and  sev- 
enty-two girls  of  paradise,  besides  his  own  former  wives,  if  he 
should  wish  for  them,  and  a  large  tent  of  pearls,  jacinths  and 
emeralds  ;  300  dishes  of  gold  shall  be  set  before  each  guest  at 
once,  and  the  last  mcrsel  shall  be  as  grateful  as  the  first.  Wine 
will  be  permitted,  and  will  flow  copiously,  without  inebriating. 
The  righteous  will  be  clothed  in  the  most  precious  silks  and  gold, 
and  will  be  crowned  with  crowns  of  the  most  resplendent  pearls 
and  jewels.  If  they  desire  children,  they  shall  beget  them,  and 
see  them  grow  up  within  an  hour.  Besides  the  ravishing  songs  of 
the  angel  Israfil,  and  the  daughters  of  paradise,  the  very  trees 
will,  by  the  rustling  of  their  boughs,  the  clanging  of  bells  sus- 
pended from  them,  and  the  clashing  of  their  fruits,  which  are  pearls 
and  emeralds,  make  sweetest  music." 

To  the  sensuous  races  of  the  East  there  are  here  promised, 
perhaps,  more  of  the  delights  of  a  paradise  than  are  afforded  by 
sitting  on  a  cloud  tuning  a  golden  harp.  Besides,  it  has  a  sub- 
jective humor  that  can  be  appreciated  by  those  whose  domestic 
felicity  is  not  all  that  could  be  wished  for  in  this  world. 

Although  the  religion  of  the  Turks  has  many  strange  fea- 
tures,  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  it  is  verv  distinct  from 


2  20  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

that  of  Other  civilized  nations.  Whatever  we  may  think  of  its 
founder  ;  however  unacceptable  may  be  some  of  his  doctrines  ; 
how  much  soever  he  may  have  drawn  from  the  Mosaic  and  the 
Christian  writings,  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  Unseen  World  ; 
yet,  as  a  scheme  of  religion,  influencing  as  many  if  not  more 
millions  of  people  than  Christianity,  is  it  not  worthy  of  being 
considered  by  other  peoples  than  those  immediately  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Turkey  ? 

The  ordinances  of  the  Mahometan  faith  are  strictly  observed 
wherever  the  Prophet  is  accepted.  A  Mahometan,  when  the 
time  arrives  for  his  prayer,  has  no  business  with  worldly  affairs 
until  his  prayer  is  ended.  To  him  no  earthly  business  can  com- 
pare with  the  duty  of  prayer. 

The  tourist  does  not  see  Mahometanism  unless  he  passes  over 
the  Galata  Bridge,  into  old  Stamboul.  There,  in  and  around  the 
mosques,  if  not  in  the  latticed  houses  upon  the  Sea  of  Marmora, 
he  will  meet  the  old  Turk,  who  retains  his  ancient  dress  and 
ideas.  His  head  still  swells  with  an  immense  turban,  and,  what 
is  most  striking,  it  is  uniformly  of  a  green  color.  Those  who 
wear  a  turban  of  this  color  are  Emirs.  They  are  the  descend- 
ants of  Fatima,  the  daughter  of  the  Prophet,  who  was  the  wife 
of  Ali,  his  disciple.  In  one  respect  these  green-turbaned  Mos- 
lems are  like  the  ancient  Egyptians — they  carry  the  certificate  of 
their  descent  upon  their  persons.  Nearly  every  Mahometan  in 
thirty  is  an  Emir.  He  is  entitled  to  respect.  He  may  enter 
exalted  callings.  Any  career  is  open  to  the  Emir.  The  Emirs 
have  a  chief.  He  has  sovereign  authority.  He  decrees  punish- 
ments. As  the  Janizaries  kept  alive  the  military  enthusiasm  of 
the  Turk,  so  the  Emirs  arouse  the  religious  spirit  of  Islamism. 

This  simple  faith  believes  in  the  angels  and  in  the  Scriptures. 
It  teaches  immortality,  resurrection  and  judgment.  It  shakes 
hands  across  the  abyss  with  John  Calvin.  It  is  fatalistic  to  the 
extent  only  of  holding  fast  to  God's  absolute  decrees  and  pre- 
determination both  of  good  and  evil.  Mahomet  did  not  split 
hairs,  like  Calvin  ;  so  he  accepted  the  predestination  of  evil  as 
well  as  of  good.  He  was  logical.  Leaving  dogma,  his  logic 
believes  in  good  works  and  religious  observances.  Its  first  test  of 
belief  is  prayer.  Mahomet  called  prayer  "  the  pillar  of  religion 
and  the  key  of  paradise."  In  this  view  wherein  does  he  differ 
from  the  Christian  ?     He   would  accept  no  submission  without 


MODEL  MOSLEM  PR  A  VERS.  221 

that  '•  key."  Prayer  may  be  silent,  except  on  great  occasions  in 
the  mosque,  when  it  is  repeated  aloud.  It  is  no  new  thing  to  pray 
toward  some  particular  sacred  spot.  Before  the  Christian  era 
religion  had  its  points  of  the  compass,  and  before  the  veiling  of 
women,  and  their  exclusion  from  the  mosque,  or,  at  least,  their 
isolation  behind  the  lattices  in  the  mosque,  other  and  Christian 
churches  shut  the  women  as  closely  behind  their  jalousies  as 
the  Turk  shuts  his  behind  those  of  the  harem.  The  Mahome- 
tan idea  is  that  the  presence  of  women  in  the  mosque  during 
worship  is  incompatible  with  prayer,  as  their  presence  might 
inspire  a  different  kind  of  devotion  than  that  which  belongs  to  the 
faith. 

The  first  chapter  of  the  Koran  is  a  prayer.  It  is  a  prayer 
which  is  held  in  great  veneration  by  the  Mahometans.  It  is 
considered  the  quintessence  of  the  Koran.  It  is  often  repeated. 
It  is  the  Lord's  Prayer  of  the  Moslem.  There  has  been  much 
discussion  as  to  its  recondite  meaning,  for,  be  it  known  that  there 
have  been  many  contentious  theologians  in  the  Orient  ever  since 
the  time  of  the  early  fathers.  The  fathers  defined  closely  the 
true  meaning  of  certain  words  and  phrases  upon  which  an  eter- 
nity of  happiness  or  misery  depended.  This  prayer  to  which 
I  refer  is  a  sample  of  the  very  best  meaning  of  this  wonderful 
Mahomet: 

"Praise  be  to  God,  the  Lord  of  all  creatures!  The  most 
merciful,  the  King  of  the  Day  of  Judgment !  Thee  do  we  wor- 
ship, and  of  Thee  do  we  beg  assistance.  Direct  us  in  the  right 
way,  in  the  way  of  those  to  whom  Thou  hast  been  gracious,  not 
of  those  against  whom  Thou  art  incensed  nor  of  those  who 
go  astray." 

The  foregoing  are  the  words  of  the  Moslem  common  prayer, 
without  any  of  its  wearisome  repetitions,  which  protract  it  to  a 
great  length.  Some  portions  are  repeated  three,  six  and  even 
nine  times  at  each  course.  The  samp  repetitions  are  to  be  found 
in  our  Christian  Litanies. 

This  prayer  will  remind  the  reader  of  the  Psalms  of  David  : 

"  O  God  most  high,  there  is  no  God  but  God.  Praises  belong 
unto  God.  Let  thy  name  be  exalted,  O  great  God.  I  sanctify 
thy  name,  O  my  God.  I  praise  thee;  thy  name  is  blessed,  thy 
grandeur  is  exalted,  there  is  no  other  God  but  thee.  I  flee  to 
Thee  against  the  stoned  demon,  in  the  name  of  God  clement  and 


2  22  DIVERSIONS  OP  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

merciful.  Praise  belongs  to  God,  most  clement  and  merciful. 
He  is  sovereign  of  the  Day  of  Judgment.  We  adore  thee, 
Lord,  and  we  implore  thy  assistance.  Direct  us  in  the  path 
of  salvation,  in  the  path  of  those  whom  thou  loadest  with  thy 
favors,  of  those  who  have  not  deserved  thine  anger,  and  who 
are  not  of  those  who  go  astray.  O  God,  hear  him  who  praises 
thee.  O  God,  praises  wait  for  thee.  O  God,  bestow  thy  saluta- 
tion of  peace  upon  Mahomet  and  the  race  of  Mahomet,  as  thou 
didst  upon  Ibrahim  and  the  race  of  Ibrahim,  and  bless  Mahomet 
and  the  race  of  Mahomet,  as  thou  didst  bless  Ibrahim  and  the 
race  of  Ibrahim.  Praise,  grandeur  and  exaltation  are  in  thee 
and  to  thee." 

While  praying,  the  pious  Mahometan  uses  his  chaplet  of 
beads.  This  habit  was,  no  doubt,  derived  from  the  Buddhist  or 
Christian  ceremony.  It  is  an  aid  and  ally  in  devotional  exer- 
cises. Edwin  Arnold,  in  addition  to  his  exquisite  ''  Light  of 
Asia,"  has  written  a  book  of  poetry  containing  ninety-nine  lyrics, 
strange  in  form  and  wierd  in  spirit.  Each  one  is  garnished  with 
a  quotation  from  the  Koran,  and  each  one  of  the  ninety-nine 
beads  on  the  chaplet,  or  string,  which  the  devout  Mahometan 
carries,  recalls  one  of  the  divine  attributes  and  names  of  Allah. 
These  chaplets  are  sometimes  made  of  pearls,  coral  and  amber. 
Sometimes  fragrant  wood  constitutes  their  material. 

The  most  solemn  sight  connected  with  any  religious  ceremony 
that  I  have  ever  witnessed  was  the  one  upon  which  I  looked  from 
the  gallery  of  St.  Sophia.  Below  me  were  thousands  of  human 
beings  in  regular  lines,  all  looking  toward  Mecca  while  they 
prayed.  Not  a  single  suppliant  connected  with  this  devotion 
failed  to  bow  his  head  to  the  floor,  as  by  one  impulse,  when  the 
shrill  chant  of  the  priests  died  away  among  the  pillars  and  in  the 
dome  of  the  vast  temple.  Occasionally  there  was  a  pause,  as 
between  the  summons  and  the  judgment. 

Sometimes  I  have  wished  that  the  Greek  and  Turkish  priests 
were  more  harmonious  in  their  chanting.  Their  wild,  shrill,  deliri- 
ous outcries  seem  to  have  been  inherited  from  some  ancient 
pagan  orgies  and  not  from  the  gentle  religions  of  later  times, 
which  voicelessly  enthrall,  by  their  subtle  effect,  the  spiritual 
nature. 

The  Turk  has  at  least  an  outward  show  of  piety.  If  he  be  a 
good  Moslem,  his  life  is  regulated  by  his  faith.    He  moves  with  a 


THE  MUEZZIN'S  CALL.  223 

humility  which  belongs  to  a  reflective  mind.  He  may  be  rich 
and  live  in  luxury  within  his  Izonak  or  palace,  but  when  he  enters 
the  mosque  there  is  for  him  no  worldly  pomp.  He  is  in  the 
presence  of  the  unseen  God.  He  prays  without  ceasing,  aligned 
with  others,  some  of  whom  may  be  beggars,  water-carriers  or 
charcoal  venders.  Here  he  feels  that  he  is  but  one  of  the  atoms 
among  the  many  which  make  up  a  remarkable  and  infinite  con- 
gregation of  souls.  Certainly  such  humility  is  in  strange  con- 
trast with  the  complacent  luxury  of  Western  churches,  with  their 
richly  cushioned  pews,  their  carved  pulpits,  their  gilt-edged 
hymn-books  and  their  sometimes  pompous  clergy. 

The  call  to  prayer  is  a  picturesque  feature  of  this  remarkable 
faith.  Morning,  nocn  and  night  that  shrill  cry  echoes  over  these 
wonderful  cities  and  waters: 

"  Most  High!  There  is  no  God  but  the  one  God!  Mahomet 
is  the  Prophet  of  God!  Come  to  prayer!  Come  to  the  Temple 
of  Life!" 

This  speaks  of  a  devotion  which  must  have  its  response  from 
the  other  world.  It  is  the  daily,  almost  hourly,  recognition  of 
God  by  a  whole  people  who  acknowledge  his  Everlasting  Name 
and  their  dependence  on  his  Providence.  No  need  here  for  "  put- 
ting God  in  the  Constitution,"  for  the  One  God  is  as  much  their 
king  as  he  was  to  the  Jews  in  the  days  of  their  theocracy. 

It  is  a  singular  phase  of  the  Oriental  life  in  the  "  Land  of  the 
Sun"  that  the  day  begins  when  the  sun  goes  down.  Then  it  is 
the  first  time  of  prayer;  the  second  is  two  hours  after  sunset,  and 
the  third  is  at  the  dawn.  Each  time  the  chanting  of  the  muezzin 
from  the  minaret  calls  the  faithful  to  prayer.  The  most 
important  time  of  prayer  is  at  noon.  The  Sultan  recognizes  this 
when  he  comes  out  to  the  mosque  on  Fridays.  The  fifth  and  last 
prayer  is  about  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  It  is  determined  when 
away  from  human  reckoning,  as  m  the  desert,  by  the  length 
of  the  shadow  either  of  a  stick,  a  dromedary,  or  other  object. 
The  shadow  must  be  of  the  right  length;  that  is,  of  its  own  height 
upon  the  ground. 

Alms-giving  is  a  chief  part  of  this  faith.  It  is  a  part  of  all  the 
religions  coming  from  the  Orient.  It  is  not  peculiar  to  Mahome- 
tanism.  Begging  is  a  passport  to  every  place,  from  the  Sultan's 
palace  to  the  seventh  heaven  of  paradise. 

Fastmg  also  is  an  observance  of  the  Mahometan.     His  Lent, 


224  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

from  one  moon  to  the  other,  is  kept  with  religious  regard  while 
the  sun  is  above  the  horizon.  How  often  have  I  looked  over  and 
seen  the  wonderful  beauty  of  Stamboul  in  that  Ramazan  season, 
when  the  mosques  are  burning  their  countless  lamps,  and  from 
minaret  to  minaret  there  is  a  profusion  of  brilliant  lights  !  It  is 
during  this  month  that  the  worship  of  the  Prophet  is  celebrated 
with  a  splendor  only  limited  by  Moslem  skill  in  illumination. 
When  the  electric  light  shall  appear  in  the  East,  to  penetrate  the 
dark  places  of  Stamboul  and  shed  its  refulgence  through  St. 
Sophia,  Suleiman,  and  the  other  grand  mosques  and  structures  of 
the  capital — with  their  immense  interiors  filled  with  surging  and 
kneeling  forms  and  bowing  foreheads — the  splendors  of  the 
Roman  ritual  in  St.  Peter's,  and  the  glories  of  Westminster  Abbey 
and  St.  Isaacs,  will  be  eclipsed  before  those  of  Islam. 

I  will  not  now  undertake  to  compare  with  others  the  festal 
days  and  rites  of  the  Turkish  religion,  nor  the  obligation  of  pil- 
grimages, nor  the  ablutions  with  water,  nor  other  fundamental 
practices  of  this  faith ;  nor  can  I  augur  as  to  the  abstinence  from 
wine  and  strong  liquors,  and  the  other  restrictions  which  Mahomet 
evidently  copied,  if  he  did  not  improve,  from  the  Levitical  law  ; 
but  I  think  it  will  not  be  unprofitable  to  allude  to  one  of  the  gen- 
tlest features  of  Moslem  life — it  is  kindness  to  the  brute  creation. 
This  seems  an  institution  of  the  East.  It  is  derived,  doubtless, 
from  the  Egyptian  or  Hindoo  ideas  of  metampsychosis.  Every 
bird  that  washes  its  wing  in  the  Bosporus,  every  donkey  which 
with  sorrowing  step,  works  up  the  hill  of  Pera,  loaded  to  the 
earth  ;  the  cooing  ring-doves  of  the  mosque,  which  feed  freely 
from  the  open  grain  boats  of  the  Straits;  the  horse  with  thunder 
in  his  neck  and  gentleness  in  his  eye;  and  the  ox  which  treadeth 
out  the  corn  in  the  provinces — all  would,  if  they  could,  speak  of 
Moslem  kindness  toward  the  brute  creation,  which  becomes 
mutual,  blessing  as  it  is  blest. 

The  usury  which  is  practised  by  the  Armenians  and  others,  and 
eating  the  flesh  of  swine,  or  of  any  animal  that  has  died  a  natural 
death,  are  as  severely  avoided  by  the  Mahometan  as  they  were  by 
the  ancient  Hebrews.  Gaming  too,  is  not  in  vogue.  They  have 
their  dice  and  their  backgammon,  and  many  other  games  for 
amusement,  but  not  one  for  gain. 

When  the  adherents  of  the  Greek  orthodox  Church  make  com- 
plaints of  the  Mahometan,  because  he  does  not  love  art,  and  be- 


CIRCUMCISION  OF  MOSLEM  CHILDREN.  225 

cause  he  will  not  have  pictures,  only  mottoes  from  the  Koran,  in 
the  mosque,  it  would  be  well  to  ask  the  orthodox  people  as  to  the 
quality  of  the  painted  and  smoked  pictures  in  the  Greek  churches, 
as  well  as  their  vaunted  miraculous  qualities.  If  it  be  a  question 
of  superstition,  let  the  miracles  of  their  holy  spiings  and  wells  be 
analyzed,  with  the  chemistry  of  the  water.  It  would  be  well  also 
to  ask  them,  when  they  come  to  the  remarkable  attributes  of  the 
priesthood,  why  relics  still  perform  such  cures  as  are  attributed  to 
them.  I  have  been  myself  at  a  witching  monastery,  in  a  lovely 
grove  near  the  castle  of  the  Seven  Towers  in  Constantinople, 
where  the  Greeks  pass  certain  holidays  in  dancing  and  praying. 
I  have  seen  the  miraculous  fish  in  its  fountain.  It  is  an  old  and 
trite  story  about  the  last  Emperor  Constantine  and  the  broiled 
fish  which  leaped  out  of  the  pan  and  swam  about  in  the  water, 
in  order  to  fulfill  a  prophecy  about  the  fall  of  the  city. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  a  very  minute  description  of  the  Ma- 
hometan rite  of  circumcision.  It  is  more  sedulously  regarded  in 
the  Moslem  economy  than  in  the  Hebrew,  from  which  it  was 
taken.  The  ceremony  calls  for  grand  preparations  at  the  konak, 
or  house,  of  the  family.  All  the  Faithful  within  the  range  of  the 
family  acquaintance  are  invited  to  the  feast  which  accompanies 
the  ceremony.  The  sons  of  the  poor  families  of  the  vicinage  are 
collected  to  undergo  the  rite,  on  the  same  occasion  with  the  rich 
man's  sons.  Was  it  not  Montesquieu's  father  who  made  a  beg- 
gar the  god-father  of  his  famous  son,  to  remind  him  all  his 
life  that  the  poor  were  his  kith  and  kin  ?  The  incident  has  an 
Oriental  tinge. 

Only  one  sex  ventures  into  the  salon  where  the  circumcision^is 
to  take  place  ;  the  other  is  excluded  pro  tempore.  Behind  bars  and 
curtains,  and  with  a  superfluity  of  rich  dresses,  jewelry  and  confec- 
tionary, the  ceremony  begins.  Upon  the  little  mattress  coverlets 
are  laid  down,  stiff  with  golden  embroidery;  then  the  silk  or  satin 
pillows  are  strewn  about  profusely  ;  toys,  oranges  and  presents  of 
all  kinds,  including  fruit  and  flowers,  artificial  and  real,  are  brought 
to  attract  or  distract  the  attention  of  the  children.  Wild  Arab 
music  appeals  to  the  ear,  for  the  same  purpose.  The  cymbals 
clash,  the  tambourines  rattle,  and  the  drum  adds  its  thumping 
unmelodiousness.  One  after  another  the  young  children,  aged 
from  five  to  ten,  are  borne  into  the  appointed  chamber.  A  com- 
pany of  actors  or  mountebanks,  in  fantastic  array,  with  musical 


226  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA T  IN  TURKEY. 

instruments,  fill  up  the  swelling  scene.  All  this  happens  before 
the  dinner,  which  is  served  at  sunset.  The  dinner  does  not  differ 
from  the  general  Turkish  dinner,  such  as  I  have  described,  where 
no  knives  and  forks  appear  ;  but  there  is  more  than  the  usual 
richness  and  abundance  of  viands,  whose  climateric  is  the  famous 
pilaf. 

When  the  spectacular  ceremony  begins,  various  modes  are 
improvised  by  both  women  and  men  to  peep  into  the  sacred  cham- 
ber. While  it  is  going  on,  the  buffoonery,  jugglery  and  jesting 
proceed,  together  with  the  performance  of  a  Turkish  band,  which 
adds  to  the  clatter  and  distraction. 

Strange  people,  strange  religion,  and  strange  ceremony  !  yet 
there  is,  doubtless,  a  sanitary  value  in  the  practice;  although  it 
may  be  also  a  strictly  religious  rite. 

The  contest  of  Mahomet  for  supremacy  in  Arabia  and  the 
East,  considering  his  environment,  was  lofty  and  sublime.  It 
matters  not  whence  he  received  his  dogmas  ;  he  certainly  em- 
braced the  salient  points  of  Theism,  Judaism  and  Christianity. 
Whatever  may  be  believed  of  his  revelation  to-day,  it  has  a 
theological  sublimity.  What  though  his  doctrines  inspired  his 
followers  with  predatory  impulses  !  They  were  promised  a  para- 
dise, if  they  fell  battling  under  the  banner  of  the  Prophet.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise,  than  that  the  Crescent  should  wax  over  a 
church  militant,  and  the  symbols  of  another  religion  wane  in  the 
Semitic  East?  The  decree  announced  by  Mahomet  for  the  pro- 
mulgation of  his  faith,  to  slay  all  those  who  refused  to  accept  it, 
has  long  since  passed  away  from  the  Mahometan  mind,  as  it 
has  from  that  of  the  Christian.  The  student  may  read  Hallam's 
History  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  may  ponder  upon  the  revolu- 
tions which  followed  the  Ishmaelitish  religion.  He  may  analyze 
the  passions  and  temper  of  the  Arabic  race  ;  but  one  thing  can- 
not be  ignored,  and  that  is  :  that  the  "  People  of  the  Book,"  as 
they  were  termed  in  the  Koran — the  four  uni-theistic  sects,  the 
Christians,  Jews,  Magii  and  Sabeans — were  recognized  everyv/here 
by  the  Mahometan  with  toleration.  Can  it  be  said  that  all  these 
sects  tolerate  the  Mahometan?  Would  any  of  them  draw  the 
sword  against  him,  because  of  his  creed  ? 

There  is  more  toleration  among  the  Turks  than  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  believe  existed.  They  tolerate  many  sects  in  their 
own  creed.     There  are  several  orders  of  Dervishes.     These  are 


MOSLEM  FAITH-CURE. 


227 


distinguished  one  from  the  other  by  the  canons  of  their  faith. 
There  is  a  sect  that  is  materialistic.  There  is  another  that 
■worships  the  Virgin  Mary  ;  and  still  another  that  believes  in  the 
Saviour  and  the  twelve  apostles.  Each  of  the  various  orders  has 
some  peculiar  characteristics,  but  all  are  tolerated.  Some  are 
known  as  howling  and  some  as  dancing  Dervishes.  It  is  impos- 
sible with  the  pen  to  represent  the  former,  but  the  pencil  does 
something  in  the  sketch  to  give  an  idea  of  the  latter.  Of  course 
there    is   more   or  less   of   superstition   in   connection  with  the 


DANCINO  DERVISHES. 

Dervishes.  They  pretend  to  cure  diseases.  So  far  as  I  could  see, 
with  my  fallible  sight,  they  succeed  in  the  mind  cure.  I  have 
•seen  long  rows  of  patients  lying  horizontal — babies  and  soldiers 
among  them — and  the  Dervish  walking  upon  their  bodies.  They 
arise — well.  Is  it  faith  that  cures,  or  what  ?  These  Dervishes 
are  versed  in  astrology.  They  have  quiet,  and  perhaps  I  might 
say  cunning,  manners.  They  are  skillful  enough  never  to  be 
enmeshed  m  the  intrigues  of  the  court  or  the  cabals.  How 
rarely  have  I  read  of  any  scandals  connected  with  the  Mahometan 


228  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

religion  !  Our  own  journals  are  full  of  scandals  in  the  Church, 
both  in  America  and  elsewhere.  Only  one  such  Moslem  instance 
can  I  recall :  at  Broussa,  in  a  certain  quarter,  there  was  a  Tekke. 
This  is  a  name  for  a  quasi  mosque.  Its  Imam  yielded  to  certain 
temptations  of  the  flesh  and  the  devil,  and  made  his  place  the 
resort  of  Bacchanals  and  worse.  It  was  not  long  before  he  was 
removed,  for  such  practices  cannot  exist  in  a  Mahometan  country. 

The  Turk  has  always  admired  intellectuality,  or  the  "  Men  of 
the  Book."  One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Mussulman 
saints  had  a  tender  attachment  for  a  Christian  monk.  At  the 
request  of  the  Mussulman,  they  were  buried  together.  Their 
twin-tomb  still  exists  at  Iconium.  The  Christian  head  of  the 
Iconium  monastery  possesses  a  privilege  superior  to  that  of  all 
the  Ottomans,  viz.,  the  girding  on  the  sword  of.  Osman,  the  Con- 
queror, upon  the  Sultan,  in  the  mosque  of  Eyoub,  upon  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne.  There  are  evidences  in  history  of  Christian 
nuns  asking  and  receiving  the  kindly  regard  of  the  Moslem  ;  and^ 
at  times,  for  some  adornments  in  the  shape  of  carpets  for  their 
chapels.  A  few  months  ago,  there  were  reciprocities,  presents 
and  assurances  of  friendship  between  the  Sultan  and  the  Pope. 

Those  who  inveigh  so  strenuously  against  the  alleged  bad 
faith  of  the  Moslem,  must  remember  that  there  are  always  two 
sides  to  a  question,  and  more  especially  when  it  is  one  of  a  relig- 
ious quality.  In  the  year  a.  d.  1444,  after  the  sword  had  been 
flashing  over  the  Balkans,  and  through  Greece  and  Asia  Minor 
and  along  the  Bosporus  and  the  Danube,  it  was  agreed  that  it 
should  be  sheathed  and  have  an  absolute  rest  for  ten  years.  The 
Hungarians,  through  their  leaders,  among  whom  their  grand  cham- 
pion, Hunyades,  was  prominent,  gave  the  sanction  of  soldierly 
honor  to  this  truce.  Cardinal  Julian  also  confirmed  it,  by  the 
rites  of  the  religion  of  which  he  was  an  exalted  representative. 
It  was  signalized  by  oath  upon  the  Gospels — the  most  sacred  oath 
possible  to  a  Christian.  On  the  part  of  the  Turks,  the  Sultan 
Amurath,  in  the  presence  of  his  civil  and  ecclesiastical  servants, 
swore  to  the  pact  upon  the  Koran.  This  peace  was  strictly 
observed  by  the  Turk.  How  was  it  observed  by  the  Christians  > 
As  they  never  intended  to  keep  it,  they  broke  it.  Its  breach  was 
made  on  the  plea  that  there  was  no  faith  to  be  kept  with  the 
Infidel.  In  disregard  of  its  sanctity,  the  Christian  Powers  move 
upon  the  East.     It  seems  as  if  the  Ottoman  would  be  swept  out 


MOSLEM  REVENUE  FOR  CHRIST. 


229 


of  Europe.  But  what  is  the  result?  The  Moslem  starts  the 
■old  war-cry.  He  has  the  morale  of  the  issue.  In  every  mosque 
there  are  solemn  appeals  to  Allah.  The  Sultan  leads  the  hosts 
•of  the  Faithful  against  the  invaders  at  Varna;  and  at  the  head  of 
the  Janizaries,  on  a  truce  and  in  a  field  between  the  two  armies, 
he  reads  aloud  the  violated  treaty.  It  is  held  aloft  upon  a 
lance-head  within  sight  of  the  Christian  armies,  and  with  a  thun- 
derous voice  the   Sultan    utters   this  most  singular  invocation  : 

"  Oh,  Thou  insulted  Jesu  !  avenge  the  wrong  done  unto  Thy 
good  name,  and  show  Thy  power  upon  Thy  perjured  people." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  upon  whose  banner  victory  alights. 
The  perjured  are  routed.  The  Turk  is  dominant  over  the  field. 
The  Moslem  faith  has,  by  this  victory,  a  new  lease  of  power  and 
a  larger  dominion  ;  and  that  too,  through  the  intercession,  as 
believed  at  the  time,  of  the  Jesus  Christ  to  whom  the  Moslems 
appealed. 

The  Mahometans  have  always  reverenced  our  Saviour  as  a 
great  judge  and  prophet.  Even  at  the  great  mosque  in  Damas- 
cus, which  I  have  seen,  there  is  a  minaret  dedicated  to  the  name 
•of  Jesus  Christ. 

As  one  among  many  examples  of  the  toleration  of  the  Sultan 
toward  those  who  do  not  accept  the  Mahometan  religion,  I  may 
rstate  that,  in  the  Ministerial  changes  recently  effected,  Agop 
Pasha,  a  non-Mussulman,  became  Minister  of  Finance.  He  was 
■chosen  for  his  merit  as  a  financial  administrator,  which  had  been 
well  attested,  by  the  orderly  methods  of  his  books,  as  a  man  of 
business,  and  his  clear  conception  of  the  fiscal  future  of  Turkey. 

To  what  extent  are  the  Turks  fatalists  ?  I  might  answer  this 
■question  by  saying :  Not  to  any  greater  extent  than  our  own 
•Calvinists.  I  might  illustrate  this  by  many  examples  of  their 
mode  of  making  their  calling  and  election  sure.  They  have  a  wild 
invocation  in  battle.  It  is  this  :  "  Heaven  is  before  you  ;  hell 
behind  you  ;  fight  bravely,  and  you  will  secure  the  one  ;  fly,  and 
you  will  fall  into  the  other  !  "  There  is  not  much  fatalism  in  this, 
for  if  the  soldier  be  destined  for  Hades,  then,  according  to 
Calvin,  not  all  his  heroism  can  save  him  from  perdition. 

I  recall  another  instance — not  without  some  shuddering.  I 
made  a  visit  one  Friday  to  the  how^ng  Devishes.  A  company  of 
this  sect  was  established  below  the  hills  of  Pera  on  the  north- 
west.    To  reach  the  spot  we  had  to  pass  through  the   neigh- 


230  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL OMA  T  IN  TURKE  V. 

borhood  of  Kassim  Pasha.  It  is  the  home  of  pestilence.  It 
is  known  by  the  unpleasant  and  malodorous  name  of  the 
Cloaca  Maxima.  It  was  such  places  that  made  the  plague  and. 
the  cholera  a  scourge  in  earlier  days.  Since  leaving  Constan- 
tinople I  have  heard  that  the  authorities  are  taking  drastic 
measures  in  regard  to  filling  up  this  terrible  drain.  The  en- 
lightened Turk,  like  the  enlightened  predestinarian  believes  ii> 
"  using  means  "  to  work  out  the  decrees,  and  to  give  them  the 
most  favorable  turn  he  can.  Another  example  of  this  kind  is. 
their  life-saving  service  and  their  quarantine. 

Sad  indeed  are  the  accounts  which  passengers,  anxious  to- 
reach  Constantinople,  give  of  the  quarantine  at  Cavak,  at  the; 
head  of  the  Bosporus.  They  are  compelled,  without  distinction, 
to  pass  their  time  on  the  vessel  at  this  station,  in  sight  of 
all  the  wonders  of  the  Bosporean  waters  and  shores,  upon  which 
they  are  forbidden  to  land.  The  Sultan  makes  no  discrimination 
between  those  who  are  his  own  Ministers  or  those  who  are  foreign 
Ministers,  and  the  ordinary  traveler.  All  alike  are  placed  in  the 
common  jail-bounds  of  the  ship,  waiting  for  the  lapse  of  the  four 
days  of  confinement.  Sometimes  our  launch  used  to  ply  around 
the  quarantined  vessels  with  our  healthy  flag  flaunting,  and 
many  were  the  anxious  inquiries  from  American  tourists,  to- 
which  we  responded  as  best  we  might,  when  we  could  not  go  on 
board  to  welcome  our  countrymen.  Indeed,  these  vessels  were 
in  one  sense  prisons — without,  however,  the  meagreness  of  prison 
fare,  or  the  healthy  labor  of  the  galley-slave.  I  have  heard  some 
wails  about  the  way  the  precepts  of  Vatel,  if  not  those  of  Soyer, 
were  disregarded.  The  question  of  quarantine  is  really  neither  a 
culinary  nor  an  international  question.  It  is  a  question  of  **  Kis- 
met."    One  of  these  prisoners  once  said  to  me  : 

"  I  can  understand  how  a  noble  murderer  at  the  gibbet  should 
feel  a  pride  in  the  moral  example  which  his  death  would  afford, 
but  the  imprisoned  victim  of  a  quarantine  has  no  such  consolation. 
Its  hindrance  vindicates  no  principle  ;  it  affords  no  example  ;  it 
can  have  no  pretense  to  any  prophylactic  character. ' ' 

Yet,  Mahometan  quarantine  defies  Fate.  It  laughs  at  Kismet. 
It  scowls  at  Calvin  and  the  Koran.  The  Turk  undertakes  by  this 
imprisonment,  more  strict  than  that  of  any  other  port  of  Europe^, 
to  make  provision  for  the  futtfre  of  this  life,  at  least.  He  does  not 
trust  to  fate,  nor  practice  on  the  precept,  "  what  is  writ,  is  writ.'*" 


IRVINCS  TESTIMONY  TO  MAHOMET.  2^1 

Could  thje  author  of  this  religion  be  the  gross  impostor  he  has 
been  often  represented  ?  Did  he  fabricate  his  faith  for  purposes 
of  ambition  and  universal  conquest  ?  A  wealthy  merchant,  he 
drops  into  a  bankrupt ;  and  leaving  Mecca  a  ruined  man,  he  has 
but  one  thought,  and  that  is  to  build  a  little  mosque  in  which  to 
harrangue  his  hearers.  He  has  rare  dashing  spirits  to  aid  his 
career.  When  most  exalted  by  his  conquests  and  power,  he  is 
most  simple  and  humble.    He  dies  poor. 

"  He  left,"  says  Irving,  "  neither  a  golden  divan  nor  a  silver 
dirham,  neither  a  slave  nor  a  slave  girl,  nor  anything  but  his  gray 
mule,  Daldal,  his  arms,  and  the  ground  which  he  bestowed  on 
his  wives,  his  children  and  the  poor." 

Here  is  self-abnegation  without  alloy.  At  the  death  of  a 
beloved  child,  he  is  resignation  itself.  In  the  article  of  his  own 
death  he  proclaims  his  hope  of  salvation  through  the  compassion 
of  Allah  and  his  trust  m  His  mercy.  Does  he  bow  before  his 
Destiny  as  if  it  were  written  in  the  everlasting  decree  ?  Yes. 
Not  a  word  escapes  him  in  derogation  of  his  uniform  teaching 
and  his  inviolable  faith.  In  summing  up  his  character,  I  adopt 
the  language  of  our  countryman,  Washington  Irving,  who  made 
the  life  of  this  strange,  prophetic  man  a  study  for  his  gifted  pen  : 

"It  is  difficult  to  reconcile  such  ardent,  persevering  piety 
with  an  incessant  system  of  blasphemous  imposture,  nor  such 
pure  and  elevated  and  benignant  precepts  as  are  contained  in  the 
Koran,  with  a  mind  haunted  by  ignoble  passions  and  devoted  to 
the  groveling  interests  of  mere  mortality;  and  we  find  no  other 
satisfactory  mode  of  solving  the  enigna  of  his  character  and  con- 
duct than  by  supposing  that  the  ray  of  mental  hallucination  which 
flashed  upon  his  enthusiastic  spirit  during  his  religious  ecstasies  in 
the  midnight  cavern  of  Mount  Hara  continued  more  or  less  to 
bewilder  him  with  a  species  of  monomania  to  the  end  of  his 
career,  and  that  he  died  in  the  delusive  belief  of  his  mission  as 
a  prophet." 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    ORTHODOX    GREEK    CHURCH — ITS   ORIGIN. 

Adherents  of  the  orthodox  dogma  consider  their  Church 
as  the  great  trunk  from  which  the  other  branches  of  the  Christian 
faith  have  sprung.  To  ascertain  how  far  this  belief  is  sustainable, 
it  is  necessary  to  cast  a  short  retrospective  glance  into  the  histor}- 
of  Christianity  from  the  time  of  its  foundation,  a.  d.  ^^.  In  that 
year  the  first  church  was  established  in  Jerusalem  by  the  apos- 
tles. Two  years  later  came  the  persecution  against  Stephen  and 
his  followers.  The  apostles  were  then  obliged  to  quit  Palestine 
and  betake  themselves  to  the  adjacent  countries.  Philip  the 
Deacon  went  into  Samaria  proclaiming  Christ  and  the  gospel. 
Peter,  having  traveled  through  Judea,  made  a  vast  number  of  con- 
verts, and  among  others  the  Roman  Cornelius  and  his  family.  In 
A.  d.  36-40  the  first  church  was  founded  in  Antioch.  There  for 
the  first  time  believers  in  Christ  were  called  Christians. 

The  work  begun  by  the  apostles  was  steadily  continued  by 
their  successors.  As  far  back  as  a.  d.  170,  Christianity  had 
already  spread  over  a  large  portion  of  As'a.  It  included  Persia, 
Armenia  and  Arabia.  In  the  latter  country  the  gospel  was  inter- 
preted by  Origen  and  Pantenos,  the  great  teachers  of  the  School 
of  Catechism  of  the  new  faith  founded  in  Alexandria.  Much 
success  was  obtained  in  Neo-Cesaraea  by  Gregory  the  miracle- 
worker.  His  last  words  before  dying  were  to  express  satisfaction 
at  leaving  only  as  many  infidels  (17)  as  he  had  found  believers 
on  his  coming  mlo  the  country.  In  Africa,  and  especially  in 
Alexandria,  Christianity  was  largely  taught.  Here  it  found 
many  converts.  But  the  firmest  hold  obtained  by  the  new  faith 
was  in  Europe.  There  the  apostle  Paul  taught  with  much 
success. 

It  is  most  painful  to  read  of  the  fearful  persecutions  to  which 
the  apostles  and  their  successors  were  subjected  while  carrying 
on  their  great  work  of  preaching  the  gospel.     The  Jews  were  the 


PERSECUTIONS  OF  EARLY  CHRISTIANS. 


233 


first  to  rise  against  them.  They  were  irritated  to  the  highest 
degree  by  the  teachings  of  our  Saviour  developing  so  rapidly  through 
the  exertions  of  the  apostles  into  a  regularly  established  faith. 
Of  the  persecutions  inflicted  on  the  apostles,  prominent  are  the 
cruel  imprisonment  of  Peter  and  John,  the  stoning  of  Stephen,  the 
Protomartyr,  the  butchering  of  Jacob,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  and  the 
throwing  of  Jacob  from  the  height  of  the  temple. 

Other  cruelties  were  perpetrated  on  the  rest  of  the  apos- 
tles and  their  followers.  These  continued  until  the  taking  of 
Jerusalem  in  a.  d.  70,  when  the  Jewish  power  and  influence 
seemed  to  be  effectually  destroyed.  For  a  time  the  Jews  were 
obliged  to  cease  their  persecution  of  converts  to  Christianity. 
They  had  their  own  misfortunes.  The  respite,  however,  was 
but  very  short,  for  their  inveterate  zealotry  again  found  vent, 
and  in  a  yet  more  cruel  manner,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Jewish 
insurrection  in  a.  d.  132,  The  revolt  was  headed  by  the  false 
messiah  Varhova.  On  his  defeat  by  the  Roman  Emperor  Adrian 
the  Jews  ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation. 

To  these  persecutions  of  the  primitive  Christians  succeeded 
those  by  the  pagans.  In  every  country  into  which  Christianity 
was  introduced  its  converts  were  subjected  to  every  imaginable 
species  of  cruel  treatment.  Their  houses  and  property  were  pil- 
laged, and  themselves  put  to  death  after  suffering  the  most  agoniz- 
ing tortures.  Many  Christian  communities  with  their  elders 
were  obliged  to  abandon  their  homes  and  seek  r^uge  in  caverns 
in  the  desert  and  in  woods.  Even  there  they  were  exposed  to 
hunger,  thirst,  cold  and  to  being  devoured  by  wild  beasts.  The 
fiercest  of  these  pagan  persecutions  were  durmg  the  reigns  of  the 
Emperors  Nero  and  Domitian.  Traianus,  who  succeeded  the  last- 
named  emperor  in  a.  d.  98,  issued  an  edict  against  all  secret 
societies.  This  was  aimed  against  the  Christian  religion  mainly, 
which  at  the  time  had  to  be  practised  in  secret.  The  Christians 
having  thus  come  under  the  ban  of  the  law,  their  persecution 
became  even  more  oppressive  and  systematic  than  before.  Yet 
under  sufferings  the  most  terrible,  those  early  converts  to  the 
Christian  faith  displayed  a  heaven-born  courage  and  perseverance 
of  which  it  would  be  impossible  in  this  short  sketch  to  convey 
any  accurate  idea, 

Rome  had  then  the  whole  world  under  her  rule.  As  emperor 
succeeded  emperor,  each  one  appeared  anxious  to  surpass  his  pre- 


234 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


decessor  in  the  excesses  inflicted  against  Christians  in  every  part 
of  the  empire.  The  most  violent  of  these  persecutions  took  place 
in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Diocletian,  a.  d.  284-305.  Instigat- 
ed by  his  brother-in-law  Galerius,  Diocletian  issued  in  a.  d.  303  a 
decree  ordering  all  Christian  churches  to  be  pulled  down  and  the 
Holy  Scriptures  to  be  destroyed.  This  was  followed  in  a.  d. 
304  by  another  edict,  to  the  effect  that  all  Christians  who  refused 
to  worship  and  sacrifice  to  idols  should  be  forthwith  put  to  death. 
The  consequences  attending  this  latter  order  were  fearful.  In  Asia 
Minor  alone  15,000  Christians  were  massacred  in  one  single 
month.  In  Egypt  140,000  were  put  to  death.  It  is  computed 
that  700,000  died  in  prison.  These  massacres  continued  until 
the  year  a.  d.  310,  when  Galerius,  being  attacked  with  an  incurable 
disease,  issued  in  a.  d.  311  a  decree  ordering  all  further  persecu- 
tions of  the  Christians  to  be  stopped,  and  desiring  them  to  pray 
to  their  God  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul. 

This  was  the  condition  of  the  Christians  until  a.  d.  311. 
Constantine  the  Great  was  then  proclaimed  emperor  in  Brittany. 
He  succeeded  his  father  Constantine  Chloros.  In  a.  d.  312,  the 
new  emperor  declared  war  against  the  Roman  Maxentius.  The 
latter  was  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  Christians.  His  power  was 
utterly  crushed  by  Constantine,  who  thus  became  sole  emperor 
and  absolute  monarch  of  the  West.  From  the  moment  he  mounted 
his  father's  throne  he  showed  a  marked  leaning  toward  the 
Christian  religion.  Upon  taking  the  reins  of  the  government  of 
the  East  and  West  into  his  hands  his  first  care  was  to  give  the 
Church  of  Christ  his  powerful  protection.  He  suppressed  with  a 
strong  hand  the  evils  to  which  it  had  for  three  whole  centuries 
been  subjected.  He  extended  to  it  every  possible  support  that, 
under  the  circumstances,  the  state  could  then  afford. 

In  A.  D.  323,  after  his  victory  against  Licinius,Constantine  him- 
self embraced  the  Christian  faith.  Consequently  it  became  the 
state  religion  throughout  the  Roman  empire.  The  property  that 
had  been  confiscated  was  returned  to  the  churches.  He  also,  by 
special  decree,  dedicated  Sunday  to  the  worship  of  God.  He 
ordered  that  day  to  be  kept  as  a  day  of  rest.  Later  on  Constan- 
tine removed  his  seat  of  government  from  Rome  to  Constantino- 
ple, or  Byzantium,  as  it  was  then  called.  He  rebuilt  the  city  and 
adorned  it  with  many  exquisite  works  of  art  and  a  large  number 
of  magnificent  churches. 


THE  HIERARCHY  AND  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 


235 


Upon  this  adoption  of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the 
Roman  empire,  it  became  incumbent  uix)n  the  state  to  establish 
rules  for  the  government  of  the  Church.  Reforms  were  intro- 
duced in  quick  succession.  These  tended  to  constitute  the  Church 
a  distinctly  separate  establishment,  having  no  direct  communion 
or  relations  with  the  state.  The  latter,  however,  undertook 
to  make  all  necessary  provision  for  the  proper  maintenance 
of  the  religious  communities.  Livings  were  appropriated  to 
the  use  of  the  churches.  It  was  made  lawful  for  churches  ta 
accept  legacies.  Church  property  was  made  inalienable,  and  the 
clergy  were  freed  from  taxation.  Legislation  upon  ecclesiastical 
matters,  both  temporal  and  spiritual,  was  made  over  to  the 
local,  or  in  cases  of  supreme  importance,  to  CEcumenical  synods, 
or  assemblies  of  the  superior  clergy.  The  resolutions  of  these 
bodies  were  invariably  submitted  to.  They  received  the  sanction 
of  the  Emperor.  They  thus  became  invested  with  the  authority 
of  law.  Finally,  the  right  of  trying  the  clergy,  whether  for 
religious  or  criminal  offences,  was  invested  in  the  bishops,  and 
ecclesiastical  courts  were  established  for  the  purpose. 

The  hierarchy,  or  graduating  offices  in  the  Church,  were  allowed 
to  remain  at  this  time  as  originally  ordered  by  the  apostles.  The 
clergy  were  elected.  This  appears  from  their  name  in  Greek,mean- 
ing  "  vote."  All  ecclesiastics  before  receiving  ordination  were 
chosen  by  vote.  They  were  divided  into  three  ranks  :  First — the 
bishops,  who  were  and  are  still  considered  as  the  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  the  apostles,  and  who  were  also  styled  shepherds, 
vicars,  popes  and  patriarchs,  according  to  the  different  countries 
in  which  they  resided.  Second — the  elders,  or  priests  ;  and  Third,, 
the  deacons. 

Originally  all  the  bishops  ranked  equally.  But  as  each  circle 
from  the  centre  of  which  the  Christian  faith  was  being  prop- 
agated began  rapidly  to  widen,  it  was  found  that  the  bishops  who 
occupied  those  few  centres  did  not  suffice  for  the  wants  of  the 
daily  increasing  communities.  Consequently  power  was  given 
them  to  appoint,  each  in  his  own  radius,  other  bishops,  acting 
under  them.  This  arrangement  rendered  it  necessary  that  some 
distinctive  title  should  be  given  to  the  bishops  at  great  centres,  to 
distinguish  them  from  their  subordinate  bishops.  They  were 
accordingly  at  first  styled  Proti.  This  title  was  subsequently 
— on  the  occasion  of  the  first  OEcumenical  synod  held  in  Nicaea 


236  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

— changed  to  Metropolitan.  The  latter  title  came  from  the 
centres  from  which  the  other  Christian  communities  had  received 
admittance  to  Christ's  church.  The  Metropolitan  Church  was 
looked  up  to  by  their  communities.  It  was  held  in  estimation 
as  that  of  a  mother  of  their  own  churches.  The  first  to  receive 
the  title  of  Metropolitan  were  the  bishops  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch, 
Alexandria,  Ephesus,  Corinth  and  Rome. 

These  Episcopal  sees  were  also  styled  apostolic  thrones,  as 
having  the  gospel  direct  from  the  apostles.  The  most  promi- 
nent among  these  Metropolitan  or  Episcopal  sees  were  those 
of  Antioch,  Alexandria  and  Rome.  To  cne  latter  see  all  the 
Churches  of  western  Europe  were  subjected.  The  Bishop  of 
Constantinople — the  capital  of  the  great  Roman  empire — received 
by  courtesy  the  title  of  Patriarch.  At  the  time,  however,  he  did 
not  actually  rank  higher  than  the  other  Metropolitans.  Then  the 
latter  only  recognized  as  their  Master  and  the  Head  of  the  whole 
Church,  the  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  maintained  by  the  orthodox  that  the  first  symptoms 
of  a  desire  for  supremacy  came  from  Rome.  It  was  vehe- 
mently resented  by  the  other  prelates,  and  especially  the 
successive  Patriarchs  of  Constantinople.  It  culminated  in  the 
separation  of  the  Western  Church  from  the  Eastern.  All  the 
Christian  communities  dependent  upon  the  Metropolitan  see  of 
Rome  were  then  collectively  styled  the  Western,  in  distinction 
from  the  Eastern  Church.  This  separation,  or  schism,  took 
place  in  the  year  a.  d.  1054.  The  Papal  see  of  Rome  was  at  the 
time  held  by  Leo  IX.,  and  the  patriarchal  throne  at  Constan- 
tinople by  Michael  Kiroularius.  The  latter  had  been  for 
some  time  most  vehemently  protesting  against  the  innovations,  as 
he  regarded  them,  which  were  being  daily  introduced  into  the 
Western  Church  by  the  Popes.  He  considered  them  as  in  direct 
violation  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws  laid  down  by  the  apostles  and 
the  successive  synods.  He  denounced  the  manner  in  which  the 
observations  addressed  on  this  subject  to  the  Popes,  by  himself 
and  the  other  Metropolitans,  were  received.  Being  apprised  of 
a  new  "  violation  "  of  the  precepts  of  the  Church  on  the  part  of 
Rome,  he  sent  by  the  Bishop  of  Bulgaria  a  letter  to  John,  Arch- 
bishop of  Trania,  in  Italy,  in  which  he  bitterly  complained  of  and 
condemned  the  Pope's  conduct  as  schismatical. 

When  the  bearer  of  this  letter  reached  Trania  he  found  there 


ATTEMPTS  TO  UNITE  EAST  AND  WEST.  237 

> 
an  envoy  of  the  Pope,  Cardinal  Humbert.     The  envoy,  having 

read  the  Patriarch's  letter,  sent  a  translation  of  it  to  Pope  Leo. 
The  latter,  in  reply,  wrote  a  long  missive  to  the  Patriarch.  He 
denied  the  right  of  the  Patriarch  to  question  or  condemn  the 
conduct  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  '*  whose  actions  could  be 
judged  by  no  mortal."  The  Pope  ended  his  letter  by  calling 
upon  the  Patriarch  to  hasten  to  repent  and  beg  forgiveness  for 
his  sin,  "  lest  he  be  incorporated  in  the  tail  of  the  dragon  who 
had  swallowed  up  the  third  part  of  the  orbs  shining  in  the 
heavens."  Notwithstanding  the  tone  of  this  letter,  both  the 
Patriarch  and  the  emperor  replied  in  very  conciliatory  terms. 
The  former  urged  the  necessity  of  a  perfect  accord  among  the 
churches ;  the  latter  directed  that  the  Pope  should  send  an 
embassy  to  Constantinople,  to  discuss  the  different  questions 
with  the  local  synod. 

In  compliance  with  this  request  the  Pope  sent  an  embassy, 
with  Cardinal  Humbert  at  its  head.  Immediately  on  its  arrival 
in  Constantinople  the  embassy  was  admitted  to  audience  of  the 
Emperor,to  whom  Cardinal  Plumbert  handed  a  letter  from  the  Pope. 
This  contained  many  bitter  complaints.  The  foremost  was  that  the 
Patriarch  should  have  presumed  to  adopt  the  title  of  (Ecumenical 
Patriarch.  On  leaving  the  Emperor,  Cardinal  Humbert  paid  an 
official  visit  to  the  Patriarch.  He  omitted  to  give  the  Patriarch 
the  usual  brotherly  salutation  or  greeting.  With  a  stiff  bow  he 
handed  him  a  copy  of  the  letter  he  had  already  delivered  to  the 
Emperor.  The  Patriarch,  after  attentively  perusing  the  letter  and 
examining  the  seals  attached  thereto,  began  to  entertain  a  suspi- 
cion. It  was  to  a  certain  extent  confirmed  by  the  inconsistent 
utterances  of  some  of  the  members  of  the  embassy.  He  sus- 
pected that  the  letter  was  a  forgery,  and  that  Humbert  had 
no  special  powers  from  the  Pope.  He  concluded  that  the  envoy 
was  simply  the  organ  of  a  conspiracy  concocted  by  a  Byzantine 
duke  by  the  name  of  Argyros,  who  had  settled  in  Italy.  He 
thought  the  object  was  to  derive  political  advantages  from  a 
separation  of  the  Churches.  He  therefore  refused  to  hold  fur- 
ther parley  or  communion  with  Humbert  and  his  followers.  In  re- 
venge, Humbert,  on  July  16,  a.  d.  1054,  went  to  the  Church  of  St. 
Sophia  and  placed  on  the  communion  table  an  aphorism  excommu- 
nicating the  Patriarch,  the  bishops  and  the  communicants  collec- 
tively of  the  Eastern  Church. 


238  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

The  Patriarch,  on  being  apprised  of  this  extraordinary  pro- 
ceeding, called  immediately  a  meeting  of  bishops.  It  was  then 
and  there  resolved  that  a  petition  should  be  addressed  to  the 
Emperor  denouncing  Cardinal  Humbert  and  his  suite  as  impostors^ 
and  demanding  their  expulsion  from  Constantinople.  The  peti- 
tion was  duly  presented  to  the  Emperor.  He  replied  in  writing, 
stating  that,  having  gone  carefully  into  the  matter,  he  was  himself 
inclined,  to  believe  that  there  was  some  intrigue  at  the  bottom  of 
the  affair.  But,  having  no  positive  proofs,  he  felt  bound  to  treat 
Cardinal  Humbert  with  the  respect  due  to  a  person  invested  with 
the  office  of  ambassador.  Consequently,  he  would  not  consent 
to  the  Patriarch's  demand  for  the  expulsion  of  the  mission.  On 
receipt  of  this  reply  of  the  Emperor,  the  Patriarch  Kiroularius 
again  called  together  the  synod  of  bishops  present  in  Constanti- 
nople at  the  time.  A  minute  was  drawn  up  in  condemnation  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  embassy.  The  synod,  by  way  of  retort, 
placed  under  anathema  both  the  proceedings  and  all  those  who 
might  approve  or  adhere  to  them.  This  minute  was  afterward 
signed  by  all  the  other  prelates  of  the  Eastern  Church.  This 
served  to  consummate  the  complete  separation  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  from  the  Church  of  Constantinople. 

Besides  this  struggle  for  supremacy,  the  primary  causes  which 
led  to  the  separation  were  certain  alleged  reforms  introduced 
into  the  original  doctrines  of  the  Church  by  the  Popes  of  Rome. 
These  reforms  the  churches  in  the  East  refused  to  admit.  The 
Eastern  Church  condemned  them,  as  being  opposed  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Christ  and  the  apostles.  The  principal  among  these 
reforms,  introduced  long  before  the  severance  between  the 
churches  became  accomplished  de facto y  were: 

The  insertion  of  the  word  "filioque"  in  the  Nicaean 
Creed. 

The  substitution  of  unleavened  for  leavened  bread  in  the 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

The  belief  in  the  existence  of  the  "  purgatorium  "  as  a  half-way 
house  between  earth  and  heaven,  or  hell;  and 

The  infallibility  of  the  Pope. 

These  are  still  the  essential  points  of  difference  between  the 
Church  of  Rome  and  the  orthodox  Greek  Church.  The  latter 
regards  herself  as  remaining  firm  to  all  the  traditions  of  the 
Church  originally  established  by  the  apostles,  down  to  the  most 


GREEK  DOGMAS.  2  39 

minute  particulars.  Its  doctrines  are  to  be  found  in  a  number  of 
articles  of  faith.     These  comprise: 

The  Nicaean  Creed,  so  called  from  its  having  been  drawn  up 
by  the  first  (Ecumenical  synod  held  at  Nicaea  in  a.  d.  325. 

The  Creed  of  St.  Athanasius,  which  establishes  two  different 
but  inseparable  dogmas — that  relating  to  the  Holy  Trinity,  and 
that  explaining  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God. 

The  Holy  Catechism  of  the  orthodox  Church,  as  taught  in 
their  schools. 

The  other  dogmatic  teachings  contained  in  the  canons  of  the 
ten  topical  synods;  and 

The  canonical  epistles  of  the  elders  of  the  Church,  which 
were  fully  discussed  and  confirmed  by  the  Sixth  QEcumenical 
Synod. 

Moreover,  a  full  exposition  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Eastern 
orthodox  Church  is  to  be  found  in  the  Patriarchal  epistle,  which 
was  approved  as  a  true  confession  of  the  orthodox  faith  at  the 
synod  held  at  Jerusalem  in  a.  d.  1672.  A  copy  of  this,  bearing  the 
signatures  of  all  the  orthodox  prelates,  was  sent  in  a.  d.  1723  to 
England,  by  way  of  reply  to  the  overtures  made  by  the  Protestant 
clergy  for  a  closer  intimacy  with  the  Eastern  Church. 

The  spiritual  government  of  the  Eastern  orthodox  Church  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  CEcumenical  Patriarch,  assisted  by  a  synod  of 
twelve  bishops,  chosen  on  the  demand  of  the  different  sees  subject 
to  the  throne  of  Constantinople.  The  title  of  Patriarch  comes,  of 
course,  from  the  Old  Testament.  It  was  originally  conferred  on 
some  of  the  most  eminent  only  of  the  prelates  of  the  Church.  It  is  a 
token  that  they  were  worthy  to  be  held  in  the  same  kind  of  respect 
as  the  ancient  Patriarchs  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures.  The  first 
prelate  to  receive  the  title  of  Patriarch  was  the  Bishop  of  Antioch, 
in  Syria.  It  was  subsequently  conferred  in  succession  on  the 
Bishops  of  Rome,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem  and  Constantinople. 

The  bishops  of  Rome  and  Alexandria,  before  they  received 
this  title,  were  styled  Popes.  On  the  separation  of  the  Churches 
they  retained  only  that  of  Pope. 

Before  the  separation  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches 
there  were,  therefore,  five  prelates  of  the  whole  Catholic  Church 
bearing  the  title  of  Patriarch.  The  right  to  bear  this  title  was 
duly  confirmed  to  each  of  these  five  prelates  at  the  first  and 
second  CEcumenical  synods.     The  following  is  the  order  of  pre- 


240  DiyERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

cedence  then  settled:  Rome  first,  styled  "  first  among  equals; " 
Constantinople  second ;  and  then  Alexandria,  Antioch  and 
Jerusalem. 

These  five  Patriarchs  were  likened  by  some  of  the  Byzantine 
theologians  to  the  five  senses  of  the  body.  This  may  be  seen  from 
a  letter  addressed  by  Peter,  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  to  the  Bishop  of 
Venice,  in  which  he  says  : 

"  It  is  nowhere  written,  and  consequently  inadmissible,  that 
the  Bishop  of  Venice  shall  be  styled  by  the  title  of  Patriarch,  for 
we  only  know  of  five  Patriarchs  in  the  whole  world  :  those  of 
Rome,  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  Antioch  and  Jerusalem,  For, 
as  our  body  is  governed  by  five  senses,  so  the  body  of  Christ, 
our  Holy  Church,  is  governed,  like  unto  the  five  senses,  by  the  five 
patriarchal  thrones." 

After  the  severance  of  the  Churches,  when  the  Bishops  of 
Rome  dropped  the  title  of  Patriarch,  they  went  back  to  the  origi- 
nal title  of  Pope.  The  Patriarchs,  after  this,  numbered  only  four, 
until  the  sixteenth  century.  Then  Russia,  under  the  Emperor 
Vladimir,  having  entered  the  fold  of  the  Eastern  Church,  the 
number  was  raised  to  five  by  the  consecration  of  a  Russian  pre- 
late, with  the  title  of  Patriarch.  He  was  to  govern  the  Church 
of  Russia  and  rank  fifth  in  the  order  of  Patriarchs,  i.  e.,  after  the 
Patriarch  of  Jerusalem.  This  Russian  patriarchate  continued 
until  the  year  a.  d.  1700.  Then  the  tenth  Patriarch,  Adrian  by 
name,  having  died,  Peter  the  Great  suppressed  the  patriarchal 
office.  He  appointed  instead,  a  synod  of  bishops  to  govern  the 
Russian  Church.  This  change  was  effected  with  the  full  consent 
of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  in  whom,  after  the  separa- 
tion from  the  Church  of  Rome,  the  supreme  power  of  the 
Eastern  Church  had  become  vested. 

The  Church  of  Constantinople,  or  Byzantium,  was  established 
by  the  apostle  Andrew.  He  built  the  first  house  of  worship  there, 
in  the  place  then  known  as  Argyropolis.  It  is  now  called  Foon- 
dooklo;  or,  literally,  hazelnut  village.  It  is  situated  on  the  Euro- 
pean shore  of  the  Bosporus,  and  is  the  third  village  on  the  west 
bank,  and  next  to  Tophane,  which,  as  an  artillery  factory  and 
depdt,  is  in  contrast  with  this  peaceful  association  of  its  neighbor. 
In  A.  D.  36  the  same  apostle  constituted  Byzantium  an  Episco- 
pate. He  appointed  his  disciple,  Stachis,  as  first  bishop.  Of  him 
mention  is  made  by  the  apostle  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 


THE  ARYAN  HERESY. 


241 


Paul  consecrated  him  with  his  own  hands.  Stachis  governed  the 
Church  of  Byzantium  for  sixteen  years.  He  was  suceeded  by  Onis- 
simos,  who  died  in  a.  d.  53.  From  this  period  up  to  the  building 
of  Constantinople  by  Constantine  the  Great,  there  were  eighteen 
successive  bishops  of  Byzantium.  Simultaneously  with,  or,  rather, 
in  consequence  of,  the  removal  of  the  capital  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire to  the  shores  of  the  Bosporus,  the  Bishops  of  Constantinople 
assumed  the  title  of  Patriarch.  The  first  to  do  so  was  Metro- 
phanes  I.  Two  years  before,  he  had  succeeded  Bishop  Trovos  in 
the  Episcopal  see  of  Byzantium.  The  patriarchate  of  Metrophanes 
I.  was  marked  by  the  holding  of  the  first  CEcumenical  synod.  It 
was,  by  order  of  the  Emperor  Constantine,  assembled  at  Nicaea 
in  A.  D.  318  to  pronounce  judgment  on  the  heretical  teachings  of 
Arios.  Arios  was  a  native  of  Libya  and  a  distinguished  mathe- 
matician. Before  this  he  had  gone  to  Alexandria,  which  was  still  at 
that  period  a  great  seat  of  learning.  There  he  was  ordained  a  bishop 
by  Peter,  the  Holy  Martyr,  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  was  deemed  a 
very  important  acquisition  to  the  Church.  Soon  after  his  ordination, 
however,  he  most  painfully  surprised  and  alarmed  his  friends  by 
attacking,  both  by  word  and  writing,  the  Church  in  its  most 
fundamental  doctrines.  He  caused  it  to  shake  to  its  very 
foundations. 

In  the  midst  of  the  prevailing  enthusiasm  for  the  sublime 
religion  of  Christ,  which  had  now  spread  over  the  whole  of  the 
civilized  and  even  over  a  great  part  of  the  uncivilized  world, 
Arios  came  forward  to  cast  a  gloom  over  the  Christian  world  by 
denying  the  divinity  of  Christ.  He  stamped  upon  the  doctrine 
relating  to  the  Holy  Trinity.  For  these  teachings,  then  regarded 
as  blasphemous,  Arios  was  excommunicated  by  Peter,  Bishop  of 
Alexandria.  But  soon  after  he  received  absolution,  and  was  again 
admitted  to  the  Church  by  Achillas,  the  successor  of  Peter  in  the 
bishopric  of  Alexandria.  Achillas  also  ordained  Arios  as  High 
Priest  of  Alexandria,  and  made  him  a  professor  of  sciences. 

During  the  Episcopate  of  Achillas,  Arios  remained  perfectly 
quiet.  He  showed  a  sincere  repentance  for  his  former  transgres- 
sion. No  sooner,  however,  was  Achillas  dead  than  he  again  com- 
menced his  heretical  teachings,  and  this  time  with  such  force  and' 
argumentative  persuasion  that  he  soon  began  to  draw  to  his  side 
many  converts,  even  among  the  higher  clergy.  Seeing  this,  and 
fearing  the  evil  might  take  still  larger  dimensions,  the  new  bishop 


242  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  [N  TURKEY. 

of  Alexandria  convoked  a  synod  of  bishops  from  different  parts 
of  Egypt  and  Libya.  They  solemnly  excommunicated  Ados  and 
his  followers.  Meanwhile  the  dissensions  in  the  Church  arising 
out  of  this  proceeding  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  anti-Christian 
teachings  of  Arios  on  the  other,  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
Emperor  Constantine.  He  first  despatched  the  Bishop  of  Con- 
trouva,  Osios  by  name,  to  Alexandria  with  a  mission  to  effect  a 
conciliation  with  Arios.  This  mission  was  a  failure.  The  Emperor, 
unwilling  to  resort  to  extreme  measures  against  the  Arionites,  in 
his  quality  of  "summus  pontifex"of  the  Church,  sent  word,  ac- 
cording to  the  historian  Photius,  to  every  town  and  country,  over 
the  whole  world,  for  all  the  bishops  and  elders  of  the  Church  to 
assemble  in  a  sacred  synod  in  the  fortified  town  of  Nicaea.  The 
purpose  was  to  hear  the  arguments  brought  forth  by  Arios,  and  to 
pronounce  sentence  accordingly. 

The  synod  was  held  in  a.  d.  318,  and,  either  by  a  noteworthy 
coincidence  or  by  premeditated  arrangement,  this  was  also  exactly 
the  number  of  clergy  who  took  part  in  the  deliberations.  Among 
the  prelates  present  were  the  Pope  Sylvester  of  Rome,  Alexander, 
Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  together  with  St.  Athanasius,  Eustace, 
Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  St.  Spiridion,  Bishop  of  Treithuntos,  St. 
Nicolas,  the  miracle-worker,  and  Paul,  Bishop  of  Neo-Csesarea. 
The  latter  attended  in  a  dreadfully  mutilated  condition.  His 
lower  limbs  had  been  burnt  a  few  years  previously  by  order  of 
the  Emperor  Licinius.  Many  others  of  those  present  also  bore 
marks  of  the  martyrdom  to  which  they  had  been  subjected  in 
the  reigns  of  the  emperors  immediately  preceding  Constantine 
the  Great. 

The  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  Metrophanes  I.,  was  unable 
to  attend  the  synod,  owing  to  his  old  age.  He  was  at  the  time 
over  one  hundred  years  old.  He  was  represented  by  one  of  his 
suffragans. 

The  convocation  was  presided  over  by  the  Emperor  in  per- 
son. The  deliberations  lasted  about  a  month.  The  most  noted 
speakers  on  the  side  of  Greek  orthodoxy  were  Eustace,  Patriarch 
of  Antioch,  and  Osios,  Bishop  of  Controuva.  On  the  side  of 
Arios  were  ranged  Eusebius,  Metropolitan  of  Nicomedia, 
Paulinus,  Bishop  of  Tyrus,  the  Metropolitan  of  Caesarea,  and 
others.  Both  parties  contended  with  zeal  and  ability  in  support 
of  their  respective  doctrines.     Ultimately  the  result  of  the  dis- 


SUPPRESSION  OF  AR  VAN  CONTRO  VERS  Y.  243 

•cussion  was  to  deprive  Arios  of  many  of  his  late  supporters.  The 
august  assembly,  with  only  a  few  dissentient  voices,  solemnly 
■confirmed  the  sentence  of  excommunication  already  passed  upon 
him  and  his  followers.  As  the  only  and  very  simple  answer  to  the 
teachings  of  Arios,  the  synod  drew  up  the  creed  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  known  as  the  Nicaean  Creed.  The  synod,  before 
dissolving,  determined  also  the  manner  of  fixing  Easter  Sunday 
in  each  year.  They  passed  other  resolutions  having  reference 
to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  government  of  the  Church. 

Notwithstanding  the  sentence  of  excommunication  passed  by 
the  synod,  and  other  subsequent  endeavors  for  its  suppression, 
Arianism,  while  yet  in  its  cradle,  took  deep  root.  Some  years 
later  it  had  grown  so  much  that  in  a.  d.  371  the  Arionites,  favored 
by  the  then  Emperor,  Oualentus,  obtained  by  a  large  majority  the 
election  of  one  of  their  own  sect  as  Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 
They  then  proceeded  to  drive  the  orthodox  clergy  out  of  all  the 
•offices  of  the  Church,  and  even  out  of  their  principal  places  of 
worship.  This  state  of  things,  however,  only  lasted  a  few  years. 
Upon  his  accession  to  the  Byzantine  throne  in  a.  d.  378,  the 
Emperor  Theodosius  the  Great  took  up  the  cause  of  orthodoxy 
with  a  strong  hand.  He  succeeded  in  stamping  out  the  Arion- 
ites. He  thus  put  an  end  to  the  dissensions  in  the  Church  in 
respect  to  their  doctrines. 

In  this  difficult  work  the  Emperor  was  very  ably  assisted  by 
two  of  the  most  brilliant  luminaries  of  the  Eastern  Church,  St. 
Athanasius,  some  time  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  Gregory,  the 
theologian.  The  latter,  on  the  dismissal  of  the  Arionite  Patriarch 
elected  in  a.  d.  371,  was  appointed  to  the  patriarchal  see  of  Con- 
stantinople. This  appointment  was  conferred  by  the  Emperor  with- 
out regard  to  the  law  concerning  the  election  of  Patriarchs  and 
other  prelates  of  the  Church,  It  was  characterized  by  some  of  the 
bishops  as  anti-canonical.  Theodosius  therefore  called  together, 
in  the  year  a.  d.  381,  in  Constantinople,  a  convocation  of  bishops, 
which  received  the  name  of  the  Second  CEcumenical  Synod.  This 
assembly  confirmed  the  nomination  of  Gregory  to  the  patriarchal 
throne.  It  afterward  occupied  itself  with  re-asserting  the  doctrines 
laid  down  by  the  first  synod.  It  affirmed  the  triumph  of  ortho- 
doxy against  Arionism  and  other  teachings  regarded  as  heretical. 

Though  the  nomination  of  Gregory  was  confirmed  by  the 
synod  with  only  a  few  dissentient  voices,  the  dissenters,  towards 


244  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

the  close  of  the  sitting,  received  large  reinforcements.  They 
ultimately  developed  into  so  strong  an  opposition  that  the 
Patriarch  found  it  necessary  to  tender  his  resignation.  This  was 
accepted.  Then  the  synod,  at  the  request  of  the  Emperor,  sub- 
mitted a  list  of  names  for  the  office  to  the  Emperor.  The  latter 
had  reserved  to  himself  the  right  of  choosing  from  them  the  new 
Patriarch.  How  the  successor  to  Gregory  obtained  the  patriarch- 
ate is  an  incident  worth  relating. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  each  member  of  the  synod  should 
send  in  the  name  of  the  prelate  in  whose  favor  he  wished  to  vote. 
Thereupon  a  list  was  to  be  drawn  up  of  those  who  had  obtained 
the  largest  number  of  votes.  This  list  was  to  be  submitted  to  the 
Emperor.  The  list  being  in  due  course  presented,  the  Emperor's 
choice  fell  on  a  person  named  Nectarius.  This  was  a  surprise  to- 
all.  The  Emperor's  attention  was  attracted  to  Nectarius  because 
his  name  appeared  last  on  the  list.  He  was  altogether  unknown 
to  the  Emperor. 

When  the  name  of  the  Patriarch-elect  was  communicated  to 
the  members  of  the  synod,  they  began  to  inquire  among  them- 
selves as  to  the  identity  of  Nectarius.  It  then  came  out  that  not 
only  was  he  not  a  member  of  the  synod,  but  neither  a  priest  nor 
yet  a  member  of  the  Church.  He  had  not  even  been  baptized  T 
He  was,  in  fact,  a  native  of  Tarsus.  He  had  held  for  some  time 
the  office  of  praetor,  or  prefect,  in  Constantinople.  Being  anxious 
to  return  to  his  own  country  he  had  called,  previous  to  his 
departure,  upon  the  Bishop  of  Tarsus.  His  object  was  merely 
to  ask  for  letters  of  introduction,  which  would  help  him  on  his 
way  back.  The  Bishop  had  been  for  some  time  pondering  as 
to  whom  he  should  give  his  vote  for  the  patriarchate.  The 
venerable  aspect  of  Nectarius  so  impressed  the  Bishop  that 
he  at  once  determined  to  vote  for  him.  Tarsus,  being  on  terms 
of  intimate  friendship  with  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  prevailed 
upon  that  prelate,  who  at  first  laughed  at  the  idea,  to  place 
Nectarius's  name  on  the  list.  When,  however,  it  came  out  that 
the  nominee  was  not  even  a  true  Christian,  there  was  great  com- 
motion among  the  clergy.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  Emperor 
remained  firm  to  his  choice,  and  ultimately  Nectarius  was  bap- 
tized, consecrated,  and  unanimously  elected  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople in  the  month  of  May,  a.  d.  381. 

Nectarius  remained  at  the  head  of  the  Church  of  Constantinople 


CHRYSOSTOM-THE  GOLDEN-MOUTHED. 


245 


for  sixteen  years.  He  was  succeeded  on  his  death  by  John  the 
Chrysostom,  or  Golden-mouthed.  Chrysostom,  while  yet  vicar  of 
the  see  of  Antioch,  had  obtained  a  world-wide  fame  as  an  emi- 
nent preacher  and  writer.  He  was  called  to  the  patriarchal  throne 
by  the  Emperor  Arcadius  in  a.  d.  398,  on  the  recommendation 
of  the  all-powerful  eunuch  Eutropius.  John,  by  his  eloquence 
and  exemplary  life,  soon  drew  to  himself  in  Constantinople,  as  he 
had  done  in  Antioch,  the  entire  sympathies  of  the  great  multi- 
tude. From  the  court  itself  he  for  some  time  continued  to 
receive  many  tokens  of  the  honor  and  respect  in  which  he  was 
held.  His  gift  of  persuasion,  and  the  influence  he  had  acquired 
over  both  the  people  and  their  rulers,  was  particularly  demon- 
strated on  the  occasion  of  the  disgrace  of  Eutropius.  Sentence 
of  death  had  been  pronounced  by  the  Emperor  upon  this  eunuch. 
John  succeeded  in  saving  his  life.  Eutropius,  hearing  of  his 
condemnation,  sought  refuge  in  the  cathedral  church  of  St. 
Sophia.  Here  the  guards  were  sent  to  arrest  him.  The  eunuch 
was  anything  but  a  favorite  of- the  people.  They  were  ready  to 
drag  him  from  the  sacred  edifice.  They  were  about  to  do  this, 
when  they  were  suddenly  stopped  by  the  Patriarch.  The  latter, 
mounting  the  pulpit,  and  pointing  with  outstretched  hand  toward 
the  late  powerful  Minister  of  State,  who  lay  cowering  and 
trembling  at  the  foot  of  the  great  altar,  preached  extempore,  and 
in  the  best  Greek  style,  that  famous  sermon  beginning  with  the 
words  "Vanitas  vanitatum  et  omnia  vanitas."  The  Patriarch 
ended  with  an  appeal  to  those  in  power  and  to  the  people  not  to 
violate  the  sanctuary  of  the  Church.  He  warned  them  to  lay  no 
violent  hands  on  the  sinner  who  had  sought  refuge  therein.  His 
pleading  had  the  desired  effect.  Eutropius  was  allowed  to  go  free. 
John's  frequent  allusions  in  his  sermons,  in  condemnation  of 
the  immorality  and  extravagance  prevailing  at  that  time  among 
the  higher  classes  and  those  about  the  court,  at  length  brought 
about  his  downfall.  His  preaching  became  so  irksome  to  those 
against  whom  his  strictures  were  addressed,  and  even  to  the  court 
itself,  that  gradually  a  strong  party  was  formed  against  him. 
This  consisted  of  those  high  in  office.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the 
nobility  were  arrayed  against  the  Patriarch.  They  determined 
to  obtain  his  removal  from  the  patriarchal  throne  and  from  Con- 
stantinople. In  this  they  succeeded  ;  but  how?  By  abusing  him 
to  the  Empress  Eudoxia.     They  charged  him  with  having  in  one 


246  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

of  his  sermons  spoken  in  disrespectful  terms  of  her  vanity^ 
It  is  .the  old  story.  The  woman,  more  than  the  empress,  re- 
sented the  affront.  She  immediately  began  a  correspondence 
with  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  Theophilus,  as  to  the  necessary 
steps  to  be  taken  for  the  deposition  of  John.  There  was  danger  of 
arousing  the  indignation  of  the  people  and  those  of  the  clergy 
who  were  devoted  to  the  Patriarch. 

By  Theophilus's  advice,  in  answer  to  the  Empress's  appeal,  a 
meeting  of  bishops  was  called.  These  were  chosen  entirely  from 
among  those  who  had  grievances  against  John.  The  meeting  was^ 
held  in  the  year  a.  d.  403,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Patriarch 
of  Alexandria  at  Chalccdon.  John  was  summoned  to  attend,  to 
hear  the  charges  and  to  defend  himself  against  them.  John 
refused  to  obey  a  summons  proceeding  from  an  ecclesiastical 
court  which  had  been  convoked  without  his  knowledge.  He 
was  thereupon  deposed  from  the  patriarchal  office  for  dis- 
obedience. 

The  imperial  sanction  was  obtained  to  this  sentence,  through 
the  influence  of  the  Empress.  She  exercised  absolute  sway  over 
her  husband,  the  weak-minded  Arcadius.  The  execution  of  the 
sentence  was  entrusted  to  a  palace  functionary.  This  officer 
broke  by  night  into  the  Patriarch's  palace  and  arrested  him. 
The  latter  was  conducted  with  all  speed  over  the  Bosporus  to  the 
Asiatic  shore  of  the  Black  Sea.  Here  a  further  journey  inland 
was  stopped.  On  the  morrow,  when  the  news  of  what  had  taken 
place  became  known  among  the  people,  they  rose  up  in  a  body 
and  demanded  the  instant  recall  of  John.  The  army  itself  took 
the  side  of  the  people. 

The  Empress  and  those  about  her  at  first  refuse  to  entertain 
the  demand  of  the  multitude.  The  Empress  sends  a  body  of  sail- 
ors, whom  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  had  brought  with  him,  to 
quell  the  insurrection.  The  people,  however,  fight  with  deter- 
mination. They  soon  obtain  the  advantage  over  the  armed 
force  sent  against  them.  They  march  against  the  palace,  with 
the  intention  of  breaking  into  it.  The  Empress  takes  fright.  She 
asks  Arcadius  to  order  the  recall  of  John.  This  happy  news 
quickly  spreads  among  the  people.  There  is  a  general  rush 
to  the  shore.  The  Bosporus  is  rapidly  filled  with  hundreds  of 
ships.  Boats  full  of  people  go  to  meet  their  beloved  Patriarch. 
And  thus  John  of  the  Golden-mouth  is  brought  back  in  triumph^ 


CHARACTER  AND  ORATORY  OF  CHRYSOSTOM. 


247 


and  placed  on  the  patriarchal  throne  in  the  midst  of  general 
rejoicing. 

After  this  the  Patriarch  John  occupied  the  see  of  Constanti- 
nople for  another  year.  Again  he  afforded  matter  of  displeasure 
to  the  court.  This  was  in  the  year  a.  d.  404.  This  time  he  was 
definitively  deposed.  His  enemies  had  prepared  for  this.  They 
had  employed  foreign  troops  to  frustrate  any  action  of  the  people 
in  his  favor.  John  was  first  exiled  to  Concousos,  in  Armenia,  and 
thence  he  was  sent  farther  inland  to  Pityus.  It  was  on  the  journey 
to  the  latter  place  that  he  died,  November  14,  a.  d.  407,  at  the 
age  of  sixty. 

Four  hundred  and  fifty  of  this  Patriarch's  sermons  have  been 
preserved.  They  are  convincing  proofs  of  the  deep  knowledge 
and  the  shining  rhetorical  powers  possessed  by  this  eminent  pre- 
late of  the  Greek  Church.  John,  along  with  his  two  contempora- 
ries, Gregory  the  theologian,  and  Basil  the  Great,  Bishop  of 
Caesarea,  are  honored  as  saints  by  that  Church.  It  has  bestowed 
upon  them  the  distinguished  appellation  of  the  three  great  lumi- 
naries of  the  Church. 

I  once  asked  a  professor  of  Greek  in  the  East : 

"What  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  Chrysostom's  elo- 
quence ?  Why  does  he  come  down  to  us  as  the  ecclesiastical 
Cicero?" 

The  reply  was  : 

"  His  descriptions  of  the  grandeur  of  the  soul,  and  its  quality 
of  permanence  and  immortality  ;  these  furnish  most  frequently 
the  theme  which,  like  molten  gold,  came  glowing  from  his  elo- 
quent lips.  And,  with  it  all,  his  earnestness  and  honesty  gave 
emphasis  to  his  terrible  phillipics  and  his  lofty  ideas." 

It  is  hard  for  any  one — scholar  or  churchman — in  the  West 
to  recognize  how  this  Patriarch  is  still  revered  by  the  orthodox 
devotees  and  scholars  of  the  East 

John,  the  Golden-mouthed,  was  succeeded  on  the  patriarchal 
throne  of  Constantinople  by  Arsakius,  the  brother  of  the  Patriarch 
Nectanus.  He  was  highly  respected,  both  for  his  many  vir- 
tues and  his  very  old  age.  He  died  a  year  after  his  election. 
Atticus  was  elected  in  his  place.  The  only  distinguishing  char- 
acteristic of  his  patriarchate  is  that  he  continued  uninterruptedly 
to  occupy  the  throne  for  twenty  consecutive  years.  This  is  the 
longest  term  on  record.     Next  after  Atticus  came  Sismius  I.    He 


248  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

died  two  years  after  his  election.  He  was  succeeded  in  a.  d.  428 
by  Nestorius.  The  latter  was  surnamed  "  The  Heretic,"  because  of 
his  adoption  of  a  new  doctrine  closely  allied  to  that  put  forward 
by  Arios.  According  to  this  doctrine,  known  as  the  Nestorian 
Creed,  there  is  a  clear  distinction  between  the  human  and  divine 
nature  of  Christ.  It  admits  that  the  Virgin  Mary  is  to  be  revered  ; 
but  only  as  the  mother  of  Christ.  It  repudiates  any  claim  Of  sanc- 
tity for  her  as  having  given  birth  to  God  himself  or  the  Son  of  God. 
The  reason  given  for  this  is,  that  the  human  nature  adopted  by 
Christ  on  his  coming  into  the  world  was  only  the  outer  garment 
or  temple  within  which  his  divine  nature  was  enclosed.  In  plainer 
terms,  the  impression  it  was  intended  to  convey  by  this  doctrine 
was  that  Christ  was  only  human.  It  admits  that  he  was  endowed 
with  supernatural  gifts  and  power.  Still,  he  was  only  human,  and 
not  co-substantial  with  the  Father. 

The  gradual  propagation  of  this  doctrine  naturally  caused  a 
violent  commotion  among  those  anxious  to  uphold  the  precepts  of 
orthodoxy  as  originally  laid  down  by  the  two  CEcumenical  synods. 
A  division  ensued  in  the  Church.  The  greater  part  of  the  clergy 
of  Constantinople,  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  and  the  Emperor 
himself,  Theodosius  the  Less — so  called  in  contrast  to  his  grand- 
father, Theodosius  the  Great — openly  avowed  this  creed  and  sided 
with  Nestorius.  In  defense  of  the  orthodox  dogmas  were  ranged 
the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  Kyrillos,  with  his  chapter,  and  the 
entire  Church  of  the  West.  The  latter  succeeded  in  enlisting  to 
their  side  the  sister  of  the  Emperor,  Pulcheria.  During  her 
brother's  minority  she  had  been  acting  as  regent.  She  still  con- 
tinued to  exercise  great  influence  in  the  conduct  of  state  affairs. 
Though  only  a  very  young  woman,  she  had,  during  her  regency, 
displayed  a  wonderful  talent  for  government.  She  had  given 
many  proofs  of  very  sound  judgment.  Her  efforts  in  this  instance 
to  persuade  the  Emperor  to  withdraw  his  support  from  the  Nesto- 
rians  proved  unavailing.  She  pleaded  that  at  least  a  synod  of 
ecclesiastics  from  all  parts  of  the  world  might  be  summoned  to 
consider  the  question  at  issue.  This,  she  said,  would  put  an  end  to 
the  existing  anarchy  in  the  Church.  Her  plea  was  successful.  On 
November  19,  a.  d.  430,  an  imperial  edict  was  issued  summoning 
all  the  bishops  in  every  part  of  the  world  to  assemble  at  Ephesus 
in  the  week  before  Pentecost  of  the  following  year.  The  convo- 
cation is  known  as  the  Third  CEcumenical  Synod.    It  met  on  the 


THIRD  AND  FOURTH  SYNODS. 


249 


22d  of  June,  a.  d,  431.  There  were  present  about  two  hundred 
bishops  from  different  parts  of  the  East,  including  Egypt.  The 
Pope  of  Rome,  Celestin,  was  unable  to  attend  personally.  He 
sent  three  exarchs  to  represent  himself  and  the  other  prelates  of 
the  West. 

The  presidency  of  this  synod  was  given  to  the  Patriarch  of 
Alexandria,  Kyrillos,  who,  as  already  stated,  was  at  the  head  of 
the  orthodox  faction.  The  debates  lasted  only  a  few  days.  They 
ended  in  a  resolution,  carried  by  an  overwhelming  majority,  con- 
demning the  new  doctrine  as  heretical,  and  Nestorius  and  his  fol- 
lowers were  placed  under  anathema.  In  pursuance  of  this  resolu- 
tion and  anathema,  Nestorius  was  shortly  afterward  deposed.  He 
was  exiled  to  an  African  oasis,  where  he  died. 

Hardly,  however,  had  the  commotion  to  which  this  eventful 
occurrence  had  given  rise  subsided  when  another  heresiarch.  Archi- 
mandrite Eutychius,  appears  on  the  scene.  His  doctrine  is 
even  more  pronounced  than  that  of  Nestorius  in  opposition  to  the 
canonical  precepts  of  the  Christian  religion.  He  enlarges  upon  the 
idea  of  Nestorius  as  to  the  two  different  natures  of  Christ.  He 
declares  that  the  divine  nature  of  Christ  had  undergone  a  com- 
plete change  through  the  process  of  incarnation. 

To  condemn  in  an  authoritative  manner  this  new  doctrine,  it 
became  necessary  to  have  another  convention.  Accordingly  the 
Fourth  CEcumenical  Synod  was  convened  by  the  Emperor  Mar- 
cianus,  the  husband  of  Pulcheria,  the  Emperor  Theodosius  the 
Less  having  died  the  year  before,  in  a.  d,  450.  This  synod 
assembled  at  Chalcedon,  now  known  as  Kadikeui,  on  October  8, 
A.  D.  451.  It  is  on  the  point  almost  opposite  Stamboul,  on  the 
Asiatic  side.  The  synod  was  attended  by  630  bishops,  or,  accord- 
ing to  some  writers,  by  520.  The  Eastern  Church  attaches  great 
importance  to  this  synod.  It  was  the  most  largely  attended  coun- 
cil in  the  history  of  the  Church.  Weighty  resolutions  were 
passed  by  it.  The  doctrine  of  Eutychius  was  unanimously  con- 
demned as  heretical  and  blasphemous.  The  synod  then  proceeded 
to  deal  with  other  important  matters.  It  passed  a  resolution 
intended  to  suppress  abuses  of  the  monkish  orders,  by  forbidding 
them  to  take  any  active  part  in  matters  ecclesiastical  or  political. 
It  passed  a  measure  confirmatory  of  that  already  adopted  by  the 
Second  CEcumenical  Synod,  conferring  on  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople the  right  to  rank  second  after  the  Pope  of  Rome  in 


250 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


the  hierarchical  order  of  the  Church.     The  reason   for  this  is 
stated  in  Article  28  of  the  Acts  of  the  Fourth  Synod,  as  follows  : 

"  Constantinople  being  the  second  capital,  the  new  Rome,  of 
the  empire,  it  behooves  that  the  bishop  of  this  city  should  have 
the  place  of  honor  next  after  the  Pope,  to  whom  the  first  place 
belongs  by  right  of  Rome  being  the  place  of  residence  of  the 
Kings." 

This  latter  part  of  the  wording  of  the  resolution  was  at  the 
time  opposed  by  the  clergy  of  the  West  present  in  the  synod. 
They  objected  to  it  as  laying  down  the  rule  that  the  first  place  of 
honor  was  given  to  the  Pope,  not  by  any  special  ecclesiastical 
right,  but  simply  because  Rome  happened  to  be  the  capital  of  the 
empire.  It  followed  that  if  at  any  time  Rome  were  to  be  deprived 
of  this  honor— which  actually  did  take  place  when  the  Eastern 
and  Western  empires  were  united  some  time  after — the  precedency 
of  the  Popes  would  become  extinct  and  precedence  be  given  to  the 
bishop  of  the  new  capital. 

It  is  essentially  this  article  that  gave  rise  to  the  dissensions  be- 
tween the  Churches  of  the  East  and  the  West.  These  culminated 
in  the  schism,  or  separation,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made. 

The  synod  in  question  granted  to  the  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople full  jurisdiction  over  the  churches  of  the  whole  of  Asia, 
Thrace  and  the  Black  Sea.  This  jurisdiction  is  maintained  up  to 
the  present  time.  It  should  here  be  stated  that  the  bishopric  of 
Constantinople  was  originally  a  mere  dependency  of  the  Metro- 
politan see  of  Heraclea.  It  was  in  a.  d.  318  that  Constantine  the 
Great  removed  his  throne  to  Constantinople,  and  then  the  patri- 
archate was  constituted  into  an  independent  see.  The  right, 
however,  was  reserved  to  the  Archbishop  of  Heraclea  of  ordain- 
ing each  newly  appointed  Patriarch.  Up  to  the  present  day  the 
Patriarchs  are,  as  a  general  rule,  chosen  among  the  Metropoli- 
tan and  bishops  of  the  Church.  This  dispenses  with  the  necessity 
of  ordination.  But  it  is  still  the  custom,  as  a  memorial  of  his 
former  office,  for  the  Metropolitan  of  Heraclea  to  hand  the  patri 
archal  crozier  to  the  Patriarch-elect  on  his  enthronement.  Hera- 
clea is  now  a  little  station  for  steamers  on  the  southern  coast  of  the 
Black  Sea,  about  120  miles  from  the  Bosporus.  There  are  300 
Turkish  and  but  seventy  Greek  houses.  It  hardly  rivals  Nicaea  as 
a  place  for  hunting  snipe,  and  certainly  not  Chalcedon  for  Chris- 


THE  TITLE  OF  ''(ECUMENICAL:'  25  I 

tian  culture,  and  these — with  Constantinople — are  the  eminent 
seats  of  early  ecclesiastical  renown  and  power. 

Though  enfranchised  from  his  subjugation  to  the  see  of  Hera- 
clea  in  a.  d.  318  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  enjoyed  no  special 
privileges.  According  to  strict  ecclesiastical  canons,  he  did  not 
rank  any  higher  than  the  other  bishops  of  the  East  or  of  the  West. 
The  title  of  Patriarch  and  his  right  to  the  second  place  after  the 
Pope  in  the  hierarchical  order  was  hitherto  accorded  to  him  by 
courtesy  merely.  It  was  a  courtesy  in  compliment  to  the  court 
b)'  whom  he  was,  as  a  rule,  appointed. 

The  Fourth  CEcumenical  Synod,  however,  raised  at  once  the 
dignity  of  the  patriarchal  throne  of  Constantinople  into  one  of 
great  eminence.  It  brought  under  the  patriarchal  sway  all 
the  churches  in  the  East,  with  the  exception  of  those  of  Alex- 
andria, Antioch  and  Jerusalem.  These  only  were  allowed  to 
preserve  their  independence.  Furthermore,  the  synod  confirmed 
to  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  his  right  to  the  title  of  Patriarch. 
It  also  conferred  the  same  title  on  the  three  other  independent 
sees  mentioned. 

The  annex  of  CEcumenical  to  the  title  of  Patriarch  was 
unknown  at  this  time.  It  was  for  the  first  time  adopted  by  the 
Patriarch,  John  II.,  on  his  election  to  the  see  of  Constantinople 
in  A.  D.  517.  The  annex  was  confirmed  by  a  local  synod  ;  that  is, 
a  convocation  of  the  Bishops  subject  to  the  patriarchal  throne. 
This  was  in  the  patriarchate  of  John  IV.,  in  a.  d.  582.  This  pro- 
ceeding gave  rise  to  vehement  protestations  on  the  part  of  Rome. 
It  greatly  conduced  to  widen  the  gulf  between  the  Churches  of 
the  East  and  the  West. 

The  Pope  contested  the  right  of  the  Patriarch  to  the  annex  of 
CEcumenical.  He  did  this  on  the  ground  that  this  annex  con- 
veyed an  idea  of  predominance  over  all  the  other  prelates  of  the 
Church.  He  was  naturally  anxious  to  preserve  the  title  to  him- 
self. It  had  been  duly  accorded  to  him  by  previous  synods. 
The  Patriarch,  on  the  other  hand,  and  the  whole  of  the  clergy 
of  the  East,  regarded  the  annex  as  bearing  a  different  meaning  from 
that  attributed  to  it  by  the  Pope.  According  to  them  the  term 
CEcumenical,  as  employed  by  the  early  Church,  was  synonymous 
with  that  of  Christian.  This  view  was  on  the  theory  that  Chris- 
tianity was  destined  to  extend  over  the  whole  of  the  inhabited 
earth.   The  Greek,  word  oiuountvibz,  the  root  of  which  means  a 


252 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


housCy  could,  in  this  sense  of  the  inhabited  world,  only  mean  Chris- 
tianity. It  was  in  this  sense  that  it  had  been  assumed  by  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople.  In  support  of  this  interpretation  they 
referred  to  Basil  the  Great,  John  the  Golden-mouthed,  and  Greg- 
ory, the  theologian,  to  whom  successively  in  former  times  the  title 
of  (Ecumenical,  i.  e..  Christian  teacher,  had  been  given. 

The  Greeks  insist,  and  they  are  supported  by  several  European 
writers,  that  it  was  merely  in  this  sense  that  the  annex  in  question 
was  assumed,  and  continued  to  be  held  until  the  final  rupture  with 
Rome.  This  interpretation  was  adhered  to  by  the  Greeks  up  to 
the  time  Constantinople  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks.  Then 
it  was  that  the  Patriarch  became  the  supreme  head  of  the  Chris- 
tian community  in  the  East.  The  title  OEcumenical  came  thence- 
forth to  be  regarded  as  carrying  with  it  the  interpretation  objected 
to  by  the  Popes  of  Rome.  It  was  then  regarded  as  expressing 
a  real  predominance  over  all  the  other  clergy  of  the  orthodox 
Church. 

While  on  the  subject  of  titles,  it  may  be  interesting  to  give 
the  full  titles — or  encomiums,  as  they  are  styled  in  Greek — of  the 
different  Patriarchs.  These  are  read  in  church  when  any  one  of 
the  Patriarchs  is  officiating  in  person.  The  titles  are  announced 
by  one  of  the  deacons,  just  before  the  reading  of  the  Epistle  for 
the  day.  They  are  chanted  by  the  two  choirs  successively.  The 
ceremony  is  quite  scenic  and  impressive.  The  Patriarch  is  in  full 
canonicals,  with  mitre  and  crosier.  He  is  surrounded  by  the 
bishops  and  the  clergy  who  are  taking  part  in  the  service  with 
him.  He  stands  on  a  throne  by  the  Communiontable  and  blesses 
the  congregation.  The  encomium  appropriate  to  the  CEcumenical 
Patriarch  is  very  simple  and  short,  running  thus  : 

"Of (the  name  of  the  Patriarch),  the  most  holy 

and  OEcumenical  Patriarch,  God  have  mercy  and  grant  long  life." 

That  of  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  is  as  follows  : 

"Of (the  name),  the  most  blessed  Patriarch,  of 

the  Holy  City  of  Jerusalem  and  of  the  whole  of  Palestine,  Syria, 
Arabia,  beyond  the  Jordan,  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  of  the  Holy 
Sion,  God  have  mercy  and  grant  long  life." 

The  Patriarch  of  Antioch  is  prayed  for  thus  : 

"Of (the  name),  the   most  blessed    and    holy 

Patriarch  of  the  great  city  of  God,  Antioch,  of  the  entire  East, 
our  Lord  and  Master,  God  have  mercy  and  grant  long  life." 


PRAYERS  FOR  THE  PATRIARCHS. 


25. 


But  the  most  curious  piece  of  composition  is  the  encomium 
given  to  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria.  The  following  is  a  literal 
translation: 

"Of (the   name),  our  most   holy  and   blessed 

father  and  shepherd,  Pope  and  Patriarch  of  the  great  city  of 
Alexandria,  Libya,  Pentapolis,  Ethiopia,  and  of  all  the  land  of 
Egypt,  father  of  fathers,  shepherd  of  shepherds,  high  priest  of 
high  priests,  thirteenth  of  the  apostles  and  judge  of  the  earth,  God 
have  mercy  and  grant  long  life." 

How  ceremonious  are  these  grand  officials  of  the  Eastern 
CKurch,  and  how  tenacious  of  their  titles,  and  especially  that  of 
(Ecumenical,  may  be  seen  by  their  signatures.  The  signatures  of 
two  of  these  Patriarchs  I  present  in  facsimile.  One  is  that  of 
"Simeon,  by  the  mercy  of  God  Archbishop  of  Constantinople,  New 
Rome,  and  CEcumenical  Patriarch."  He  was  the  Patriarch  in  a.  d, 
1474,  before  Columbus  discovered  America.  The  other  is  that 
of  "  Metrophanes,  by  the  mercy,"  etc.  He  was  of  the  year  a.  d. 
1567.  The  necessities  of  this  volume  require  these  signatures  to 
be  diminished  in  size.  They  are  mammoth  in  extent  in  the  orig- 
inal— in  fact,  two  or  three  feet  long — and  the  cabalistic  letters 
measure  an  inch  each.  The  features  of  the  Patriarchs — for  I 
have  seen  two  of  them — are  as  imposing  and  classic  as  the  sign- 
manual  is  grand  and  gigantic. 

The  Patriarchs  of  the  Greek  Church,  like  the  Pope  of  Rome, 
are  elected  ;  but  the  Patriarch  for  five  years  only.  They  are 
chosen  by  the  clergy  in  common  with  the  laity.  Joachim  IV., 
the  recent  Patriarch,  was  a  man  of  splendid  presence  and  scholar- 
ship. I  have  seen  him  going  up  and  down  the  Bosporus  in  his 
caique,  the  admired  of  all  admirers.  Much  dissension  seemed 
imminent,  pending  the  election  of  his  successor,  but  it  was  suc- 
cessfully accomplished  with  the  aid  of  the — Moslem  and  the  Sul- 
tan !  The  election  took  place  on  the  12th,  or,  in  the  new  style, 
the  24th,  of  January,  1887.  The  delegates  had  been  elect- 
ed amid  much  contention.  About  the  virtues  and  faculties 
of  Monseigneur  Dionysius  the  Fifth,  late  Metropolitan  of 
Adrianople,  who  was  elected,  I  shall  speak  in  the  next 
chapter. 

If  the  question  be  asked,  What  to  us  in  America  is  Joachim, 
or  Dionysius  ?  I  would  answer.  Are  Gibbon  and  the  history  of  the 
great  Greek  Church  obsolete  with  our  people  ?     Have  we  forgot- 


254 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  D  PLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


\.f  >o^    ^ 


•  T* 


cr±  ^  ©- 


^^         O  t 


L 


-3 


n         to 

6      ^" 


3      (  ° 


H  1 — '^     ^        ^  -^ 


a 

(B  CD  z 

'^  3  " 


c/9 


ELECTION  OF  PATRIARCH. 


255 


ten  the  grand  history  of  this  Church,  which  has  given  so  much 
of  the  fatherhood  of  the  Church  to  our  own  era  ? 

Its  personnel  may  not  attract  our  Western  world,  but  its  rela- 
tion to  the  early  eras  of  Christianity  should  give  to  each  organ 
of  its  wonderful  polity  a  reflected  and  splendid  effulgence. 

Preliminary  to  the  election  of  the  Patriarch  is  the  issuing  of 
the  Bouyourouldon.  It  would  require  the  assistance  of  the  Grand 
Logothete,  Aristarchi  Bey,  the  younger  brother  of  the  former 
Turkish  Minister  to  the  United  States — who  is  the  translator  for 
the  Greek  Patriarch — to  render  this  word  into  English.  It  signi- 
fies a  document  to  be  read  before  the  holy  synod.  When  this 
document  is  read,  the  Monseigneur  replies  in  that  synod  in  Turk- 
ish, for  his  majesty,  the  Sultan  and  his  Ministers.  Then  a  meeting 
of  the  synod  and  the  council  is  held  at  Phanar,  to  arrange  for 
the  election  of  a  new  Patriarch.  In  doing  this  they  pursue  the 
old  patriarchal  method  coming  down  from  the  ancient  times,  as 
fixed  by  the  councils  which  once  met  in  this  patriarchate. 

Is  it  not  strange,  in  the  light  of  Paul's  Epistles,  to  read  the 
names  of  the  diocesans  to  which  the  Bouyourouldon  is  addressed 
— under  the  sanction  of  the  Caliph  and  ruler  of  Islam  ?  How 
pregnant  it  is  with  ecclesiastical  wrangles,  canons,  synods,  con- 
ventions and  history  !     Here  are  some  of  the  names  : 

Caesarea,  Ephesus,  Cyzicus,  Nicomedia,  Nicaea,  Chalcedon, 
Dercos,  Salonica,  Adrianople,  Amasia,  Janina,  Broussa,  Bosnia, 
Crete,  Trebizond,  Phillipopolis,  Smyrna,  Mytilene,  Varna,  Scio 
and  Uskub.  Here,  in  these  localities,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  was 
first  preached.  Here  his  churches  were  first  organized.  Here, 
through  the  centuries  down  from  the  beginning  of  our  era, 
remained  unquenched  the  candles  of  the  Eastern  Church,  that 
claims  to  be  the  only  orthodox  expounder  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
New  Dispensation. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE     ORTHODOX    GREEK     CHURCH — ITS    ARCHITECTURE,     SYNODS, 
PROGRESS,    CONDITION,    AND    SEVERANCE    FROM    ROME. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  writer  has  given  an  outline  of  the 
history  of  the  Eastern  Church  from  its  foundation  up  to  the  early- 
part  of  the  sixth  century,  and  especially  of  its  councils  and  con- 
troversies. 

Passing  over  minor  incidents,  the  next  important  event  in  the 
history  of  the  Eastern  Church  of  which  we  have  record,  is  the 
building,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  the  restoration,  of  the  church 
of  St.  Sophia.  This  was  done  by  the  Emperor  Justinian  in  a.  d. 
532.  The  church  was  first  built  by  the  Emperor  Constantine  the 
Great,  in  a.  d.  326.  He  dedicated  it  to  the  supreme  Wisdom, 
Logia,  of  God,  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  from  this  that  the  church  derives 
its  name  of  St.  Sophia.  In  a.  d.  35  8,  either  because  it  was  found  too 
small  or  had  suffered  by  earthquakes,  the  church  of  St.  Sophia 
was  rebuilt  on  a  larger  scale  by  the  Emperor  Constantine.  In  a.  d. 
404  it  was  set  on  fire  by  the  people  in  revenge  for  the  exile  of  the 
Patriarch,  John  the  Golden-mouthed.  The  roof  and  part  of  the 
chancel  were  then  destroyed.  It  is  stated  that  the  throne  of  this 
Patriarch  and  his  pulpit  were  saved  from  that  fire.  They  are  still 
preserved  ii^  the  present  patriarchal  church  at  Constantinople. 
St.  Sophia  was  again  restored  by  the  Emperor  Theodosius  in  a.  d. 
415.  It  was  again  set  on  fire  and  entirely  destroyed  at  the  time  of  the 
revolt  of  "  Vmca,"  in  a.  d.  531.  This  was  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Justinian.  On  the  suppression  of  that  revolt  and  the  re-establish- 
ment of  order  in  his  capital,  Justinian  decided  to  restore  the  church 
of  St.  Sophia.  To  him  is  dut  the  exquisite  style  in  which  we  see 
it  at  the  present  day.  The  work  of  restoration  was  confided  by 
the  Emperor  to  two  architects,  Anthemius  Tralliainus  and  Ysidore 
the  Melisian.  This  unparalleled  production  of  their  genius 
speaks,  and  will  continue  to  speak,  their  fame  for  ages.  While 
these  architects  and  engineers  were  drawing  up  their  plans  and  dis- 

256 


BUILDING  OF  ST.  SOPHIA. 


257 


cussing  the  various  scientific  questions  connected  with  the  work, 
the  Emperor,  with  that  energy  and  activity  which  formed  the 
prmcipal  traits  of  his  character,  was  busily  occupied  in  getting 
together  the  necessary  material  and  having  the  space  cleared  for 
the  erection  of  the  wonderful  edifice.  It  is  related  that  immense 
sums  had  to  be  paid  as  compensation  to  owners  of  the  property 
that  had  to  be  pulled  down.  As  an  instance,  we  are  told  that  a 
widow  of  the  name  of  Anne  had  a  piece  of  property  valued  at 
eighty-  five  litres  of  gold — equal  to  about  twenty  thousand  dollars. 
This  she  persistently  refused  to  give  up  for  less  than  five  hundfed 
litres  of  gold,  or  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars. 
The  matter  was  reported  to  the  Emperor.  He  arose  at  once  and 
proceeded  in  person  to  the  widow's  house,  with  the  object  of  per- 
suading her  to  reduce  her  demand.  When  the  woman  heard  of 
Justinian's  approach  she  ran  out  to  meet  him.  She  fell  at  his  feet. 
She  there  and  then  made  a  free  grant  of  her  property,  on  one  con- 
dition only.  It  was  this:  that  at  her  death  she  should  be  buried 
beneath  the  entrance  to  the  new  church. 

Meanwhile  messengers  were  despatched  in  different  directions 
by  the  Emperor  to  procure  the  finest  colored  marble  and  other  valua- 
ble material.  All  the  museums  and  treasuries  of  the  state  were 
ransacked  for  works  of  art  and  treasures  of  every  description  with 
which  to  adorn  the  church.  It  was  intended  to  be  a  lasting  monu- 
ment of  Christianity  and  of  Byzantine  architectural  taste  and  art. 
Everything  havmg  been  got  ready,  the  foundation-stone  of  the  new 
edifice  was  laid  by  the  Emperor  on  the  23d  of  February,  a.  d. 
532.  The  work  was  completed  in  about  six  years.  The  expense 
amounted  to  three  thousand  Roman  quintals  of  gold,  or  about  sev- 
enty million  dollars. 

Pure  gold  and  precious  stones  were,  so  to  speak,  strewn  about 
in  every  part  of  the  interior.  The  edifice  presented  such  an  im- 
posing and  magnificent  aspect  that  the  Emperor  Justinian,  when 
entering  it  on  the  day  of  its  consecration,  gave  vent  to  the  exuU 
tation  he  felt  in  these  words: 

"I  have  surpassed  thee,  O  Solomon!" 

The  resolutions  passed  by  the  four  CEcumenical  synods  and 
the  efforts  of  the  emperors  of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  Roman 
empire  to  suppress  heresies  in  the  orthodox  Church  were  not 
entirely  successful.  The  opinions  propagated  by  Nestorius,  and 
afterward  by  the    Archimandrite    Eutychius,  had  taken  root  m 


y 


O 


-o 


d^ 


J 


ri 


I- 

D 

>■ 
3 


a- 
6 

6 


I    2  b 


O 


CD 


o 


> 
6 

O    /O- 


i  I 


4- 


OTHER  HERESIES. 


259 


several  parts  of  the  empire.  This  was  principally  in  Syria  and 
Egypt,  In  these  countries  the  faction  that  had  embraced  the 
teachings  of  Eutychius  was  daily  increasing  in  number.  They 
were  known  by  the  name  of  Monophysites.  As  the  word  implies, 
they  were  believers  only  in  one  (the  human)  nature  of  Christ. 
They  were  also  called  Jacobites,  after  one  of  their  principal  re- 
formers, Jacob  Baradaeus. 

In  the  larger  towns  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  however,  which  were 
under  the  immediate  influence  of  the  Byzantine  monarchy  through 
its  political  and  ecclesiastical  representatives,  orthodoxy  still  reign- 
ed supreme.  It  was  principally  in  the  more  distant  provinces  that 
these  heresies  found  the  larger  number  of  converts.  Imperial  and 
patriarchal  edicts,  which  it  would  take  too  long  to  enumerate, 
were  made  to  induce  these  dissenters  to  return  to  orthodoxy.  Cer- 
tain concessions  were  offered  on  the  part  of  the  Established 
•Church.  These  attempts,  and  the  efforts  of  the  Fifth  CEcumenical 
Synod,  convoked  in  Constantinople  by  the  Emperor  Justinian  in 
A.  D.  553  for  a  similar  purpose,  proved  abortive,  Syria  and  Egypt 
were  lost  to  the  Byzantine  monarchy  and  taken  by  the  Arabs  in 
A.  D.  640.  Thereafter,  all  attempts  at  conciliation  having  been 
considered  useless  or  unnecessary,  these  dissenters  were  left  to 
establish  a  Church  of  their  own.  This  Church  is  still  existing.  It 
constitutes  the  only  non-conformist  community  of  the  orthodox 
■Church. 

The  attempts  made,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Arab  conquest, 
to  bring  back  the  Monophysites  to  the  orthodox  creed  had  the 
•opposite  effect.  They  largely  contributed  in  producing  a  new 
doctrine.  This  carried  away  many  of  the  orthodox  who  had 
shown  a  willingness  to  make  a  concession  to  the  Nestorians.  They 
were  willing  to  acknowledge  that  Christ,  though  endowed  with 
two  different  natures,  had  only  one  will.  These  concessionists 
received  the  name  of  Monothelites.  This  name  distinguishes  them 
from  the  Monophysites  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  staunch  ortho- 
dox on  the  other,  who  were  opposed  to  any  concession.  This 
doctrine  of  the  Monothelites  first  made  its  appearance  in  a.  d.  639. 
It  did  not  begin  to  attract  any  attention  until  the  year  a.  d.  678, 
in  the  reign  of  Constantine  Pogonatos.  This  emperor  determined 
to  root  it  out  effectually.  After  taking  the  opinion  of  the  Pope 
of  Rome  in  the  matter,  he  called  together  the  Sixth  CEcumenical 
Synod.     It  was  held  in  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  680.     There  were 


26o  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

present  at  this  synod  289  prelates,  including  the  Patriarchs  of 
Constantinople  and  Antioch,  and  representatives  of  the  Pope,, 
of  all  the  Bishops  of  the  West,  and  of  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem. 
The  synod  passed  a  solemn  resolution  to  the  effect  that  the 
orthodox  had  always  acknowledged,  and  would  continue  to 
acknowledge,  Christ  as  endowed  with  two  different  natures, 
united,  but  not  to  be  confounded.  These  two  different  wills 
the  council  held  to  be  distinct  from  but  never  opposed  to  each, 
other. 

The  Emperor  sanctioned  this  resolution.  He  issued  an  edict 
forbidding  all  further  discussion  on  the  subject,  upon  pain  of 
degradation  as  regarded  men  in  Holy  Orders,  and  confiscatory  of 
their  property  and  exile  as  regarded  laymen. 

After  this  the  slight  bonds  which  still  existed  between  the 
orthodox  Church  and*  the  dissenting  communities  in  Syria, 
Egypt,  Armenia  and  Persia  were  entirely  broken  asunder. 
Orthodoxy  then  became  strictly  confined  to  the  Greek  nation. 
There  it  continued  for  several  ages  afterward,  until  it  was- 
propagated  among  the  neighboring  Slavonic  race. 

The  Sixth  Synod,  like  its  predecessor,  the  Fifth  (Ecumenical' 
Synod,  had  occupied  itself  exclusively  with  the  discussion  of  dog- 
matical questions.  These  were  the  most  pressing  and  ostensibly 
the  only  object  for  which  it  was  called  together.  But  there  were 
at  the  time  other  matters  of  no  less  importance  that  required  atten- 
tion. There  was  especially  need  of  certain  reforms.  These  were  in 
regard  to  ecclesiastical  discipline  and  the  private  life  of  the  clergy.. 
The  laxity  in  both  became  sadly  felt  by  the  Church  itself.  Ac- 
cordingly the  reformers  prevailed  upon  the  Emperor  to  call  another 
synod.  This  was  done  in  a.  d.  691,  in  order  to  complete  the 
work  of  the  last  two  convocations.  This  synod  goes  by  the 
name  of  the  Trull  us  or  Arched  Chamber  Synod.  The  chamber 
in  which  it  was  held  had  an  arched  roof.  The  synod  voted  102 
canons.  Six  of  these  the  Roman  Church  subsequently  refused 
to  acknowledge.  Two  among  these  six  resolutions  deserve 
special  mention.  They  afterward  exercised  great  influence  in 
the  relations  between  the  Eastern  and  "Western  Churches.  These 
two  are  the  13th  and  86th  canons.  By  the  first,  marriage  was 
made  permissible  to  the  clergy  ;  by  the  second,  it  was  determined 
that  thereafter  the  bishops  of  Rome  and  Constantinople  should 
enjoy  equal  rank  in  Church  hierarchy. 


WRANGLES  OVER  IMAGE  WORSHIP.  26 1 

These  two  resolutions  subsequently  became  very  important 
factors  in  consummating  the  entire  severance  of  the  two  Churches. 
They  have  always  been  most  resolutely  upheld  by  the  Greek 
and  denied  by  the  Latin  Church,  Nearly  ten  centuries  after  the 
Trullian  synod,  these  two  resolutions  were  the  first  to  be  inscribed 
on  the  standard  raised  by  the  founders  of  the  Protestant  religion. 

For  some  time  after  this  synod  the  Eastern  Church  may  be 
said  to  have  enjoyed  comparative  tranquillity.  In  the  year  a.  d.  754 
the  question  of  the  worship  of  the  images  and  pictures  of  the 
saints  was  suddenly  started.  It  culminated  in  a  resolution  passed 
by  a  synod  called  by  the  Emperor  Constantine  V.  This  resolu- 
tion required  that  all  such  images  and  pictures  be  removed  from 
the  different  churches,  monasteries,  public  places  and  private 
houses.  It  not  only  forbid  their  worship,  but  rendered  it  an 
offense  to  make  an  image  or  paint  a  picture  of  Christ,  the  Virgin 
Mary,  or  any  of  the  saints. 

This  resolution  was  sanctioned  by  the  Emperor.  It  gave  rise 
to  repeated  disturbances.  It  was  afterward  canceled  by  the 
Seventh  (Ecumenical  Synod.  This  synod  assembled  at  Nicaea 
A.  D.  787,  in  the  reign  of  the  Empress  Irene.  It  was  under  the  presi 
dency  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  Tarasius.  By  the  deci- 
sion of  this  synod  the  pictures  of  saints  were  restored  to  the 
■churches,  "as  contributing,"  according  to  the  words  of  the  deci- 
sion, "  to  a  more  appropriate  adornment  of  the  places  of  wor- 
ship, and  as  lasting  memorials  of  the  martyrs  of  the  Church, 
from  whose  lives  the  people  might  derive  profitable  lessons. " 
The  synod  further  determined  that,  though  it  was  right  to  bestow 
a  certain  veneration  on  such  pictures,  worship  was  due  to  God 
alone. 

This  was  the  last  of  the  QEcumenical  synods  that  are  acknowl- 
edged by  the  Greek  Church. 

The  writer  has  referred  to  the  CEcumenical  synods  at  some 
length.  This  he  has  done  in  chronological  order,  while  entering 
into  most  of  the  details  which  preceded  and  followed  them.  Upon 
their  decision  actually  rests,  up  to  the  present  day,  the  whole 
edifice  of  the  Eastern  orthodox  Church,  both  as  regards  its  doc- 
trines and  its  government  in  general. 

•  Having  submitted  my  manuscript  on  this  head  to  those 
learned  in  the  ecclesiastical  lore  of  the  Greek  Church,  it  has  re- 
ceived approbation  as  a  just  and  temperate  disquisition  upon  one 


262  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

of  the  most  important   movements  of   the  human   mind,  in  itv 
search  after  spiritual  truth  and  salvation. 

The  severance  of  the  Church  of  the  East  from  that  of  the- 
West  was  dT^/a^/^  accomplished  in  a.  d.  1054.  Among  various- 
causes  which,  the  orthodox  allege,  were  instrumental  in  bringing 
this  about,  there  was  one  principal  cause,  namely  :  the  persistent 
striving,  from  the  earliest  times,  of  the  Popes  to  obtain  absolute 
dominion  over  the  whole  Christian  Church. 

In  the  West  the  Popes  scarcely  met  with  any  obstacles  itt' 
effecting  their  purpose.  By  the  ninth  century  all  the  Churches 
in  Europe,  formerly  independent  or  otherwise,  except  that  of 
Ireland,  had  already  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  Rome. 
The  different  Churches  in  the  East,  however,  held  firmly  to  their 
ancient  traditions.  They  opposed  at  all  times  a  determined 
resistance  to  the  efforts  made  to  subrogate  them  to  the  Papacy.. 
The  Popes  naturally  seized  every  possible  opportunity  to  assert, 
their  position.  They  denounced  the  Eastern  prelates  as  disobe- 
dient churchmen. 

It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  relations  between  the  two 
Churches  were  never  of  a  very  friendly  nature.  But  up  to  the 
ninth  or  tenth  century  amicable  relations  were  at  no  time  actu- 
ally interrupted. 

In  A.  D.  857  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  Ignatius,  was. 
deposed  by  the  Emperor,  Michael  III.  The  Patriarch  had  been 
in  great  disfavor  at  the  court.  This  was  owing  to  some  v'.olent 
language  that  he  had  been  using  concerning  the  prevalent  immor- 
ality. The  Emperor,  to  make  up  to  the  clergy  and  the  people- 
for  this  arbitrary  measure,  offered  the  patriarchal  throne  to- 
Photius,  a  layman.  The  latter  had  great  renown  and  universal 
respect,  because  of  his  learning,  his  eminent  qualities  and  his 
aristocratic  descent.  Photius  at  first  declined  the  offer.  At  last 
he  was  obliged  to  accept.  The  clergy  and  the  people  loudly 
clamored  in  his  favor.  He  was  duly  promoted,  in  the  space  of  a 
few  days,  through  the  different  ecclesiastical  grades.  He  was 
ultimately  ordained  a  bishop  and  raised  to  the  patriarchal  office. 
This  was  not  the  first  instance  of  a  layman  having  been  at  once 
raised  to  the  highest  dignity  in  the  Church.  There  was  no  special 
law  to  the  contrary  at  that  time.  This  practice  had  to  be  resorted' 
to  on  certain  special  occasions.  On  this  occasion  there  was  a 
faction    comprising   the    friends    of    the    ex-Patriarch.      They 


EIGHTH  SYNOD. 


263 


declared  the  election  unlawful.  Furthermore,  the  disturbances 
resulting  from  the  two  respective  decisions  relating  to  the  worship 
of  images  had  not  yet  entirely  disappeared. 

Under  these  circumstances  Photius  and  the  Emperor  Michael 
agreed  to  convene  a  synod  to  discuss  Church  matters  in  general 
Among  the  prelates  invited  to  attend  was,  as  usual,  the  Pope  of 
Rome.  Nicholas  was  then  Pope.  He  took  this  opportunity  to 
assert  his  claim  to  supremacy.  He  replied  to  the  invitation  by 
letters  addressed  to  Photius  and  the  Emperor.  He  expressed 
in  lofty  terms  his  disapproval  of  the  arbitrary  deposition  of 
Ignatius,  and  of  the  uncanonical  election  of  Photius.  He  did 
not,  however,  refuse  to  send  representatives  to  the  synod.  This 
synod  assembled  in  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  861.  It  declared,  by  a 
large  majority,  the  election  of  Photius  to  be  perfectly  valid.  This 
decision  exasperated  the  Pope  to  such  an  extent  that  he  called 
immediately  a  synod  of  his  own  bishops  at  Rome,and  obtained  from 
them  a  decision  placing  Photius  under  the  ban  of  excommunica- 
tion. Photius  retaliated  in  a.  d.  867  by  convoking  another  synod. 
This,  in  its  turn,  pronounced  excommunication  against  the  Pope 
Nicholas  and  his  adherents.  At  this  point,  Basil,  the  Macedonian, 
usurped  the  empire  by  the  murder  of  the  Emperor  Michael  III. 
Basil  deposed  Photius  and  recalled  the  Patriarch  Ignatius.  The 
latter,  in  revenge  for  the  humiliation  he  had  been  made  to  suffer, 
called  sl^ynod  in  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  869,  Under  the  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  it  by  Ignatius  and  the  numerous  represen- 
tatives of  the  Pope,  the  synod  decided  in  favor  of  the  right  of  the 
latter  to  exercise  absolute  rule  over  the  whole  Christian  Church. 
This  synod  is  recognized  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  as  the 
Eighth  (Ecumenical  Synod.  Its  action  was,  however,  denounced 
ten  years  later,  when  Photius  was  remstated  in  the  patriarchal 
dignity.  This  was  done  by  another  synod,  very  numerously 
attended.  It  also  ratified  the  acts  of  the  synod  convoked  in  a.  d. 
867  by  Photius.  Thus  the  severance  of  the  Churches,  or  schism, 
as  it  is  called,  was  brought  about.  Thenceforward,  the  relations 
between  the  Churches  of  the  East  and  the  West  became  practi- 
cally, though  not  yet  officially,  interrupted.  They  were  broken 
off  entirely  in  a.  d.  1054  under  the  circumstances  already  related. 

Subsequently,  attempts  to  effect  a  reconciliation  were  made  at 
different  times  by  some  of  the  Byzantine  emperors.  Being  hardly 
pressed  by  barbarous  incursions  from  Asia,  they  thought  that  by 


264  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

conciliating  the  Pope  they  might  succeed  in  obtaining  assistance 
against  these  enemies  from  some  of  the  European  states.  These 
attempts  were  opposed  by  the  orthodox.  To  secure  the  aid  of 
the  Pope  would  involve  a  sacrifice  of  the  independence  of  the 
Eastern  Church  and  its  traditions.  The  clergy  and  people  of  the 
East  raised  such  a  cry  of  indignation  that  all  further  attempts  of  this 
nature  had  to  be  abandoned.  The  last  of  these  attempts  for 
reconciliation  was  made  by  the  Emperor  John  Palaeologos  VII. 
This  was  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  at  a  time  when 
the  Emperor  was  very  hardly  pressed  by  the  Turks.  The  latter  had 
already  conquered  the  greater  part  of  the  Byzantine  empire.  At 
this  time  they  were  threatening  the  capital  itself.  The  Emperor  in 
this  emergency  went,  a.  d.  1439,  to  Florence,  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  effecting  a  reconciliation  of  the  Churches.  With  him  were 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  the  Bishop  of  Ephesus  and  other 
noted  prelates  of  the  Eastern  Church.  The  Greek  dignitaries 
expected  to  discuss  freely  all  questions  and  settle  all  differences 
Instead  of  this  they  were,  it  is  said,  compelled  to  sign  an  agree- 
ment acknowledging  the  rule  of  the  Pope  and  the  doctrines  of  the 
Roman  Church.  When  the  news  of  this  capitulation  reached 
Constantinople  there  arose  a  fearful  clamor  among  the  clergy  and 
people.  They  loudly  protested  against  union  upon  such  terms,  or 
any  union  at  all. 

Two  synods  were  then  called,  one  in  Jerusalem  in  a.  d.  1443, 
and  the  other  in  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  1451.  Both  synods  stoutly 
denounced  the  agreement  in,  question.  It  was  declared  null  and 
void,  on  the  ground  that  it  had  been  forcibly  extracted  from  the 
prelates  who  accompanied  the  Emperor  to  Italy.  This  action 
aided  the  Turkish  capture  of  the  city. 

From  its  establishment,  up  to  the  time  to  which  we  have  arrived 
in  this  short  sketch,  the  Eastern  orthodox  Church  had  always  been 
governed  strictly  in  accordance  with  the  rules  laid  down  by  its 
various  synods  and  its  principal  law-givers.  The  interference  of 
the  Byzantine  emperors  in  questions  both  dogmatical  and  adminis- 
trative, was  considered  proper.  It  was  in  imitation  of  the  like 
privilege  enjoyed  by  the  kings  of  Israel.  Following  their  example, 
the  emperors  on  taking  possession  of  the  throne  were  solemnly 
anointed.  They  thus  considered  themselves  as  becoming  invested 
with  a  certain  sacred  character.  Hence  the  Emperor,  as  we  have 
seen,  called  together  the  synods.     He  sanctioned  the  election  of 


CONVERSION  OF  THE  SLA  VS. 


265 


the  Patriarchs.  He  reserved  to  himself  the  undisputed  right,  on 
certain  occasions,  of  deposing  them  and  appointing  others  of  his 
own  choice.  When  the  Patriarch  happened  to  be  in  favor  at  court 
he  became  all-powerful. 

In  the  mean  time  the  extent  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Patriarchs 
of  Constantinople  was  daily  increasing.  Especially  was  this  the 
case  after  the  neighboring  Slav  nations,  and  notably  the  Bulga- 
rians and  Russians,  had  embraced  Christianity  and  had  become 
members  of  the  orthodox  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Patriarchs  of  the  East  became  sadly  curtailed  after 
Egypt,  Syria  and  Palestine  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Arabs.  The 
patriarchates  of  Jerusalem  and  Antioch  were  subjected  to  consid- 
erable oppression  on  the  part  of  the  Crusaders.  The  latter  drove 
out  the  Patriarchs  and  appointed  Latins  in  their  stead. 

Although  efforts  had  been  made  in  former  times  to  turn  the 
Slavonic  races  to  Christianity,  little  was  accomplished  until  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries.  The  Bulgarians  were  converted  by 
two  monks  from  Salonica,  named  Methodius  and  Kyrillos.  This 
was  during  the  patriarchate  of  Photius.  He  largely  contributed  to 
their  conversion.  The  monk  Methodius  persuaded  the  barbarian 
king  of  the  Bulgarians,  Bogore,  to  embrace  the  Christian  religion. 
In  order  to  convert  the  king,  this  monk  displayed  before  him  a 
picture  representing  in  striking  colors  the  Day  of  Judgment.  It 
also  portrayed  the  felicity  of  the  just  in  paradise,  and  the  tortures 
to  which  the  wicked  were  to  be  subjected  in  the  future  state.  The 
king,  it  is  related,  was  so  impressed  with  the  picture  and  so  fright- 
ened at  the  sight  of  the  tortures,  that  he  forthwith  consented 
to  be  baptized.  His  example  was  followed  by  the  whole  of  his 
people. 

The  Russians  were  admitted  to  Christianity  about  one  hundred 
years  after  the  Bulgarians.  This  was  in  the  reign  of  the  Empress 
Olga,  She  came  expressly  to  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  955,  to  be 
baptized.  It  is  related  of  Vladimir,  her  grandson,  that  he  sent  a 
mission,  consisting  of  a  number  of  Russian  nobles,  to  different 
countries  to  study  the  different  religions.  The  members  of  this 
mission,  after  visiting  other  parts,  came  to  Constantinople.  Here 
they  were  wonderstruck  with  the  splendor  and  impressiveness  of 
the  Greek  worship.  On  their  return  to  Russia  they  recommended 
the  orthodox  faith  to  their  emperor,  as  the  most  preferable.  The 
king  accordingly  hastened  to  adopt  it.  Vladimir  received  baptism 


266  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

in  A.  D.  988.  He  at  once  compelled  all  his  subjects  to  be  bap- 
tized.    They  were  baptized  in  groups  in  the  river  Dnieper. 

For  several  years  the  successive  Metropolitan  bishops  of  Russia 
were  Greeks.  They  came  from  and  were  ordained  in  Constanti- 
nople. At  first  they  made  Kieff  their  cathedral  town.  Afterward 
they  removed  to  Moscow.  The  Russian  Church  remained  under 
the  immediate  control  of  the  patriarchate  of  Constantinople  until 
the  sixteenth  century.  About  this  time  the  Patriarch  Jeremiah 
II.  happened  to  go  to  Russia  in  order  to  collect  subscriptions  in 
aid  of  the  poverty-stricken  churches  under  Turkish  rule.  At  the 
urgent  request  of  the  Czar  and  the  Russian  clergy,  the  Patriarch 
conferred  upon  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow  the  title  of  Patriarch 
of  Russia.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  Church  of  Russia  still  con- 
tinued dependent  upon  the  CEcumenical  throne  of  Constantinople. 
We  have  already  related  how  Peter  the  Great  suppressed  the  pat- 
riarchal office  in  Russia  in  a.  d.  1722.  He  then  appointed  a 
synod  of  bishops.  It  has  since  been  governing  the  Church  of 
Russia. 

We  now  come  to  a  new,  and  the  last,  period  in  the  history  of  the 
Greek  orthodox  Church.  In  a.  d.  1453  Constantinople  was  taken 
by  the  Turks.  The  Greek  Church  had  hitherto  enjoyed  all  the 
privileges  of  a  state  religion.  Now  it  suddenly  found  itself  in  the 
power  of  foreign  rulers  of  a  widely  different  creed.  But  the  con- 
queror, Mahomed  II., was  as  clever  as  a  politician  as  he  was  daunt- 
less as  a  warrior.  He  carefully  considered  and  fully  understood 
the  truth  of  the  axiom,  "  Parcere  subjectos  et  debellare  superbos.' 
He  was  anxious  to  quiet  the  fears  and  stop  the  further  exodus  of 
the  panic-stricken  citizens,  who  were  flying  in  every  direction.  He 
immediately  turned  his  attention  to  the  Church.  Being  apprised 
that  the  patriarchal  throne  was  vacant  in  consequence  of  the  death 
of  its  late  occupant,  this  Sultan  orders  the  election  of  a  new  Patri- 
arch. ■  He  directs  the  election  to  be  carried  out  in  strict  accords 
ance  with  the  forms  hitherto  observed  on  such  occasions.  Under 
the  Byzantine  emperors  it  was  the  custom  to  install  the  Patriarch- 
elect  with  imposing  ceremony.  After  his  election  in  the  Patriarchal 
Church  by  a  conclave  of  the  higher  clergy  and  representatives  of 
the  people,  the  Patriarch  proceeds  in  state  to  the  palace.  There 
he  is  received  by  the  Emperor  surrounded  by  his  court.  The 
Emperor  presents  him  with  a  golden  staff.  It  is  ornamented 
with  precious  stones.     He  receives  a  high-bred  gray  horse  out  of 


THE  SUL TAN  AND  THE  NE  W  PA TRIARCH.  26  J 

the  imperial  stables,  richly  caparisoned.  On  leaving  the  palace,, 
after  his  audience  with  the  Emperor,  the  Patriarch  mounts  this 
steed  and,  attended  by  a  numerous  suite,  proceeds  in  great  state 
to  the  Cathedral  Church.     Here  his  enthronement  takes  place. 

Mahomed  the  Conqueror  determines  to  follow  the  example  of 
the  Byzantine  emperors  in  this  respect.  The  election  of  the  new 
Patriarch,  Gennadius  by  name,  is  announced.  The  Sultan  then 
requests  the  Patriarch  to  come,  in  the  usual  manner,  to  the  pal- 
ace. Upon  his  arrival  at  the  palace  the  Sultan  receives  him  with 
great  honors.  He  invites  the  Patriarch  to  luncheon.  When  the 
Patriarch  rises  to  depart,  the  Sultan  presents  him  with  the  usual 
golden  staff.  He  accompanies  him,  notwithstanding  the  Patri- 
arch's protestations,  down  to  the  outer  court  of  the  palace.  Here 
a  magnificent  steed  is  waiting.  The  Sultan  actually  aids  the 
Patriarch  to  mount.  He  orders  all  the  court  officials  and  a  brge 
body-guard  to  accompany  him  to  the  Patriarchal  Church  of  the 
Holy  Apostles,  Here  his  enthronement  takes  place,  with  all  the 
former  pomp  and  ceremony.  Here  was  indeed  a  clever  con- 
queror. He  knew  how  to  hold,  by  gentleness,  what  iie  had  won 
by  force  ! 

This  custom  of  the  Sultan's  reception  of  the  Patriarch-elect 
continues  to  be  observed  until  the  year  a.  d.  1657.  It  is  then 
interrupted,  and  the  ceremonial  is  confined  to  a  visit  of  the  Pat- 
riarch-elect, accompanied  by  twelve  bishops,  to  the  Sublime 
Porte.  At  this  place  they  are  received  by  the  Grand  Vizier. 
This  lasts  until  a.  d.  1840.  Then  the  former  custom  is  revived 
by  the  Sultan,  Abdul  Medjid,  father  of  the  present  Sultan.  This 
custom  still  continues  to  be  practised  on  the  election  of  a  new 
Patriarch.  Now,  an  aide-de-camp  of  the  Sultan  attends  upon  the 
Patriarch-elect,  and  accompanies  him  in  court-carriages  to  the 
palace.  There  he  is  received  in  solemn  audience  by  the  Sultan. 
Instead  of  the  former  golden  staff,  the  Patriarch-elect  is  invested 
with  the  Grand  Cordon  of  the  Imperial  Order  of  the  Medjidi^. 
On  leaving  the  palace,  the  Patriarch  and  his  suite  proceed  m  state 
to  the  Sublime  Porte.  Here  he  pays  official  visits  to  the  Grand 
Vizier  and  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship.  Thence,  in  the  same 
state,  he  proceeds  to  the  Patriarchal  Church  at  the  Fanar.  There 
the  usual  ceremony  of  the  enthronement  takes  place.  The  Pat- 
riarch is  received  at  the  entrance  of  the  church  by  the  Metropoli- 
tan of  Heraclea,  who  hands  him  the  patriarchal  pastoral  staff. 


268  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA!'  IN  TURKEY. 

Besides  these  honors,  Mahomed  the  Conqueror  conferred  upon 
the  first  Patriarch  elected  after  the  taking  of  Constantinople,  by- 
letters  patent,  the  dignity  of  Ethnarch,  or  head  of  the  Orthodox 
Community  under  Turkish  rule.  He  also  granted  him  judicial 
powers  in  all  matters  coming  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church. 
The  Patriarch  and  the  archbishops  and  bishops  under  him  were 
further  exempted  from  the  payment  of  all  tribute  and  taxes.  By 
this  means  the  Conqueror  succeeds  in  securing  the  sympathies 
of  the  conquered  people.  The  conquered  Greeks  thus  preserved 
their  religion  intact,  and,  through  that  religion,  as  they  fondly 
■deem,  their  national  character  and  their  present  social  position 
in  the  world. 

The  privileges  thus  conferred  upon  the  Church  and  its  head, 
and  especially  the  new  dignity  of  Head  of  the  Orthodox  Com- 
munity, carried  with  them  weighty  responsibilities.  The  effects 
of  these  were  not  long  in  being  felt  in  the  most  acute  manner. 
As  head  of  the  Orthodox  Community,  the  Patriarch  was  held 
responsible  for  the  acts  of  that  community  in  every  part  of  the 
Ottoman  empire.  The  Church  of  the  East  and  its  dignitaries  had 
•often  thereafter  to  atone  for  acts  opprobrious  to  the  state  com- 
mitted by  the  Greek  subjects  of  the  Porte.  The  execution  of  the 
Patriarch  Gregory  V.  and  of  the  members  of  his  synod,  in  a.  d. 
1821,  for  their  collusion  with  the  Greek  revolution,  affords  one 
■of  many  instances.  The  Patriarch  Gregory  was  dragged  forth  by 
■emissaries  of  the  Porte  from  the  Patriarchal  Church  at  the 
Fanar.  This  was  during  the  service  on  Easter  Sunday  in  that 
year.  He  was  hanged  by  the  neck  to  one  of  the  gates  of  the  Pat- 
riarchate. This  gate  has  remained  closed  ever  since.  His  body 
was  left  hanging  till  night  set  in.  It  was  then  cut  down  and 
thrown  into  the  sea.  Next  day  it  was  picked  up  by  the  captain 
of  a  Greek  merchant  vessel,  and  carried  to  Odessa.  There,  by 
•order  of  the  Czar,  it  was  buried  with  regal  honors.  In  a.  d. 
1 87 1  the  remains  were  claimed  by  the  Hellenic  government.  They 
were  given  up  and  conveyed  in  a  Greek  man-of-war  to  Athens. 
They  are  buried  in  the  church  of  the  classic  Metropolis.  This 
act  of  the  hanging  of  Gregory  and  his  synod  was  the  last  of  the 
kind  committed  by  the  Turks  ;  but  there  are  two  sides  to  this 
Oriental  question. 

The  orthodox  Patriarchate  of  Constantinople  is  styled  now 
the  Great  Church.    This  name  it  simply  derives  from  the  Church 


THE  NEW  PATRIARCHAL  CHURCH.  269 

of  St.  Sophia,  in  consequence  of  its  size.  St.  Sophia  was  called, 
in  the  Byzantine  period,  "  the  large  church."  After  the  taking 
of  Constantinople,  when  St.  Sophia  was  transformed  into  a 
mosque,  and  the  Patriarch  removed  his  seat  to  another  church, 
the  name  was  preserved  to  the  Patriarchate.  This  was  done  as  an 
indication  of  supremacy  over  the  other  sees  of  the  East.  The 
patriarchate  was  at  first  removed  to  its  former  locality — the 
Church  of  the  Apostles.  The  Patriarch  Gennadius  was  soon 
obliged  to  abandon  it,  owing  to  its  distance  from  the  Christian 
quarters  of  the  town.  He  betook  him  to  another  church,  dedi- 
cated to  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  Church  of  the  Apostles  was  then 
pulled  down  by  order  of  the  Sultan.  Upon  its  site  was  erected 
the  magnificent  mosque  known  to  this  day,  after  its  founder,  as 
the  Mosque  of  Sultan  Mehmed.  In  a.  d,  1607  the  church  which 
then  served  as  the  Patriarchate  was  occupied  by  the  Turks. 
They  transformed  it  into  a  mosque,  under  the  name  of  Feti^ 
Djami,  that  is,  **  The  Temple  of  Victory."  The  Patriarchate  was 
then  removed  to  the  Church  of  St.  George,  at  the  Fanar,  on  the 
Golden  Horn.     Here  it  remains  installed  up  to  the  present  time. 

The  CEcumenical  Patriarch,  m  his  administration  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Church,  was,  up  to  the  year  a.  d.  i860,  assisted  by  a  synod 
of  twelve  bishops.  In  that  year  a  number  of  reforms  were  intro- 
duced. One  of  these  provided  for  the  formation  of  a  repre- 
sentative council.  It  consisted  of  a  certain  number  of  clerical 
and  lay  members.  The  former  were  to  be  nominated  by  the 
Patriarch,  and  the  latter  to  be  returned  by  ballot  from  the  differ- 
ent parishes  of  the  capital  This  council  still  exists.  There  are  now, 
therefore,  two  different  bodies  sitting  at  the  Patriarchate — the 
synod  of  twelve  bishops,  and  the  mixed  council.  The  synod 
occupies  itself  exclusively  with  spiritual  matters.  The  discussion 
of  administration  and  financial  questions  is  reserved  for  the  coun- 
cil. The  Patriarch  presides  ex  officio  over  the  sittings  of  both 
these  assemblies.  The  Churches  of  Russia,  Greece,  Servia,  Rou- 
maniaand  Bulgaria  were  formerly  both  administratively  and  spirit- 
ually under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of  the  Patriarchate  of 
Constantinople.  Now  they  are  self-governed,  but  with  a  due 
regard  to  the  decisions  of  the  Patriarch  in  all  spiritual  matters. 

The  list  of  bishops  and  Patriarchs  who,  from  the  time  of  the 
apostle  Andrew  up  to  the  present,  have  occupied  in  succession 
the  episcopal  throne  of  Constantinople,  comprises  in  all  about 


■270 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


two  hundred  and  fifty  names.  Its  present  occupant,  Dionysius 
v.,  just  elected,  is  reputed  to  be  a  man  of  sound  learning  and 
•excellent  administrative  qualities.  He  was  elected  in  February, 
1887,  on  the  resignation  of  Joachim  IV.,  who  has  since  died. 

The  ritual,  or  form  of  worship  of  the  Greek  orthodox  Church, 
has  ever  remained  intact.  Under  the  Turks,  owing  to  the  dimi- 
nution of  the  means  of  existence,  the  ritual  has  been  divested  of 
some  of  the  imposing  splendor  with  which  the  services  were  con- 
ducted in  the  Byzantine  period.  The  service  comprises  a  number 
•of  hymns  and  psalms  appropriate  to  the  various  festivals  and  the 
liturgy.  During  the  service,  the  Eucharist  is  conducted  with  im- 
posing devotion  by  the  officiating  priest. 

Prominent  among  the  doctrines  of  the  Greek  orthodox  Church 
is  the  belief  in  the  transubstantiation  or  the  transformation  of 
the  bread  and  wine  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  This  is 
attributed  to  the  invisible  co-operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
Greek  Church  is  said  to  possess  one  great  advantage  over  the 
other  Christian  communities.  It  is  this:  the  Gospel  is  read  in  its 
places  of  worship  in  the  Greek  language,  in  which,  it  is  generally 
-admitted,  it  was  originally  written. 

Baptism,  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Greek  Church,  involves 
complete  immersion  in  the  water.  The  immersion  is  repeated 
thrice,  '*  In  the  name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  After  the  third  immersion  the  child  is  anointed  with 
the  Holy  Chrism.  This  ointment  is  specially  prepared  by  the  clergy 
and  blessed  by  the  Patriarch.  This  form  of  the  rite  conforms  to 
the  philological  meaning  of  the  word  Baizt't^o,  and  is  often  ad- 
verted to  by  the  great  body  of  the  Protestant  Baptists  in  confirm- 
ation of  their  creed. 

Confession  forms  one  of  the  sacred  rites  of  the  Greek  Church. 
It  is  not  inculcated  in  the  sense  or  the  form  in  which  it  is  exer- 
cised by  Roman  Catholics.  Confession,  according  to  the  ortho- 
dox ideas,  takes  simply  the  shape  of  a  conference  between  the 
member  of  a  congregation  and  the  minister.  Of  course,  this  is 
an  attenuation  of  the  Catholic  confession.  The  subject  of  the 
conference  is  as  to  the  former's  competency  to  partake  of  the  Holy 
Communion.     Confession  must  always  precede  this  rite. 

Besides  the  festivals  common  with  all  the  other  Christian 
Churches,  such  as  Easter  Sunday,  Christmas  Day  and  Epiphany, 
the  Greek  Church  has  only  one  other  festival  particularly  its  own. 


DIONYSIUS  v.,  THE  GREEK   PATRIARCH— RECENTLY  ELECTED. 


272 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


That  is  the  festival  of  Orthodoxy.  It  is  observed  on  the  first 
Sunday  in  Lent.  It  is  in  commemoration  of  the  restoration  of  the 
pictures  of  the  saints  to  the  churches. 

There  are  fixed  days  in  the  year  on  which  the  Patriarch  officiates 
in  person.  These  are  Christmas  Day,  Epiphany,  Good  Friday, 
Easter  Sunday,  the  festival  of  Orthodoxy  and  the  feast  of  St. 
Andrew,  the  founder  of  the  Church  of  Constantinople.  The  service 
as  performed  by  the  Patriarch  is  most  imposing.  Twelve  bishops, 
six  priests  and  six  deacons,  all  in  full  canonicals  made  of  rich 
stuffs,  take  part  with  him  in  the  celebration. 

The  Greek  Church  dictates  but  does  not  now  actually  impose, 
except  on  the  clergy,  the  observation  of  a  limited  number  of  fasts. 
Of  these  the  principal  are,  one  of  forty  days'  duration  preceding 
Christmas  Day,  and  another  extending  over  the  seven  weeks  in 
Lent. 

There  are  no  monkish  orders  in  the  Greek  Church,  as  they  are 
understood  and  organized  by  the  Roman  Catholics.  During  the 
Byzantine  era  there  was  a  large  contingent  of  men  in  Holy  Orders 
who  chose  to  live  in  seclusion.  A  great  number  of  monasteries 
were  gradually  established  by  these  devotees.  They  were  richly 
endowed  by  the  state  and  private  individuals.  Most  of  these 
monasteries  were  destroyed  at  the  Turkish  conquest.  Their  property 
was  confiscated.  Since  then  the  number  of  orthodox  monks  has 
greatly  decreased.  At  the  present  day  it  has  dwindled  to  only 
a  few  hundred.  They  are  concentrated  at  Mount  Athos.  This 
has  always  been  the  great  and  is  now  the  only  centre  of  orthodox 
monastic  life.  From  this  circumstance  it  is  largely  known  among 
the  Greeks  as  the  Holy  Mountain. 

The  first  monastery  at  Athos  was  founded  in  the  ninth  century, 
in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Basil,  the  Macedonian.  There  are  now 
about  forty  monasteries  on  the  Holy  Mountain.  Each  has  its 
own  separative  organization.  They  constitute  one  great  and 
united  federation.  The  monasteries  existing  in  different  parts  of 
the  empire  in  the  Byzantine  period,  and  especially  those  within 
the  precincts  of  the  capital,  are  found,  on  close  examination,  to 
have  been  nothing  more  than  great  seats  of  learning.  At  these  the 
orthodox  clergy  were  mostly  educated.  They  were  thus  enabled 
to  rank  high  in  the  world  of  culture  and  science.  After  the  Con- 
quest, these  monasteries,  or  academies,  were  suppressed.  Soon 
after,  learning  became  almost  extinct  among  the  Christians  in  the 


GREEK  CHURCH— NA  TIONAL.  273 

East.  The  greater  part  of  the  inferior  orthodox  clergy  con- 
tinued for  many  years,  as  they  are  now,  to  be  immersed  in  crass 
ignorance. 

Commencing  with  the  present  century,  however,  and  more 
especially  since  the  granting,  after  the  Crimean  War,  of  the  charter 
in  favor  of  the  Christian  population  of  the  Ottoman  empire,  the 
condition  of  the  clergy  has  improved.  The  larger  portion  are  now 
attaining  to  the  eminent  position  occupied  in  the  Byzantine 
period. 

As  attempts  were  made,  both  before  and  after  the  iSnal  rupture 
in  A.  D.  1054,  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the  orthodox  and 
the  Roman  Catholic  Churches,  so  also  attempts  have,  at  different 
times,  been  made  to  draw  nearer  the  Greek  orthodox  anci  the 
Protestant  Churches.  The  barriers  are  much  less  insurmountable 
than  those  separating  the  Protestant  Churches  from  that  of  Rome. 
Hitherto  these  attempts  have  proved  futile.  This  is  owing  to  the 
stern  refusal  of  the  orthodox  Church  to  agree  to  any  concessions 
which,  even  indirectly,  might  affect  its  own  doctrine  or  its  ancient 
traditions.  Not  only  the  Church,  but  the  Greek  nation  itself,  holds 
firmly  to  the  doctrines  and  traditions  of  the  Church.  This  strict 
adherence  has  preserved  the  national  character  and  language.  It 
has  enabled  the  Church  and  nation  to  hold  their  own  through 
many  centuries  of  foreign  rule.  The  Greek  race  regard  the 
orthodox  Church  in  a  double  sense  :  it  is  an  anchor  of  salva- 
tion, in  a  religious  and  a  national  point  of  view.  It  has  harbored 
them  safely,  as  a  Christian  people  and  as  a  nation,  amidst  all  the 
tempestuosities  of  revolution. 

The  extent  of  the  civil  authority  exercised  by  Christian  relig- 
ious communities  in  Turkey,  through  the  graces  of  governmental 
toleration,  is  remarkable.  I  have  seen  myself — so  as  to  verify  the 
statement — that  there  is  a  prison  connected  with  the  Greek  patri- 
archate. I  will  not  vouch,  as  some  have  done,  that  minors  who  have 
attempted  to  turn  Mussulmans  are  here  confined  for  their  apostacy. 
I  believe  the  statement  to  be  true  to  some  extent.  While  the  Turks 
threaten  or  banish  those  who  discard  the  Mahometan  religion^ 
they  allow  the  Greek  Church  the  like  privilege.  Out  of  this  tolera- 
tion comes  much  of  the  trouble  to  the  Protestant  teachers  from 
America.  They  are  striving  nobly  to  elevate  the  races  of  European 
and  Asiatic  Turkey,  and  that  too  despite  the  bigotry,  not  of  the 
Moslem,  but  of  so-called  Christians. 


2  74  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

We  have  seen  that  under  the  decree  of  Constantine  the  Great, 
Christianity  became  the  state  religion  of  the  whole  Roman  empire 
in  A.  D.  323.  Then  was  established  the  see  of  Constantinople, 
with  its  Metropolitan  bishop,  equal  in  dignity  with  the  Metropoli- 
tan bishops  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Ephesus,  Cor- 
inth and  Rome.  At  the  present  day  much  remains  of  the  formula, 
ceremony  and  organization  which  the  orthodox  Greek  Church 
perfected  and  perpetuated  through  the  centuries  following  this 
foundation. 

At  the  end  of  last  year,  His  Holiness,  Monseigneur  Joachim 
the  Fourth,  owing  to  ill  health,  asked  leave  to  resign  his  office 
as  the  Patriarch  of  the  Greek  Church.  The  Ottoman  govern- 
ment was  asked,  according  to  prescriptive  regulations,  to  confirm 
the  resignation.  His  Holiness  desired  to  retire  to  the  island  of 
Scio,  his  former  home.  The  requests  were  granted.  The  Metro- 
politan of  Caesarea  was  made  the  locum  tenens  of  the  patriarchal 
throne. 

Joachim  IV.  always  received  much  attention  and  kindness 
from  the  Sultan.  He  was  elected  in  1879.  He  was  only  fifty- 
eight  years  of  age  when  he  retired  from  the  patriarchate.  He 
built  the  grand  school  at  Fanar,  on  the  banks  of  the  Bosporus. 

The  Porte  once  attempted  to  restrict  the  rights  of  the  Patri- 
arch Joachim,  who  was  suspected  of  doubtful  loyalty  to  the  Porte 
and  of  having  too  much  Greek  patriotism.  This  was  inconsistent 
with  the  loyalty  due  to  the  Turk.  It  was  some  time  before  the  jeal- 
ousies were  settled  and  the  relations  of  the  Porte  and  the  Church 
reconciled.  Joachim  protested,  and  then  tendered  his  resignation. 
As  he  represented  five  millions  of  Greeks  in  the  empire,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  Greeks  outside  of  it,  and  as  the  Church  of  Russia 
was  a  cognate  religion,  the  moderation  and  good  sense  of  the  present 
Sultan  prevailed.  The  matter  was  satisfactorily  settled.  The 
ancient  rights,  recognized  and  confirmed  by  Mahmoud  the  Con- 
queror of  Constantinople,  were  restored  to  the  Greeks. 

The  Sultan  is  potential  in  these  matters  of  ecclesiastical  con- 
trol, even  when  it  does  not  affect  his  own  religion.  Questions 
preliminary  and  otherwise,  as  to  the  recent  election  of  a  Patriarch, 
had  been  mooted  at  the  meetings  of  the  subordinate  councils. 
These  concerned  the  delegates  to  the  Supreme  Council  An 
appeal  was  made,  as  in  the  olden  time,  unto  Caesar.  The  ques- 
tion was  submitted  to  the  Porte  and  the  Council  of  State  for  de- 


GREEK  MONASTERIES. 


275 


cision.  Thus,  at  the  present  day,  Mahomet  controls  the  Greek 
Church  in  the  last  appeal,  as  to  its  ecclesiastical  personages  and 
polity. 

In  the  last  interview  which  Joachim  had  with  his  sovereign,  an 
additional  fifteen  thousand  piastres  were  given  him  to  defray  the 
expense  cf  the  voyage  to  the  Grecian  islands.  On  his  departure 
from  the  Sultan  he  was  given  the  special  honors  of  the  palace. 
Honors  were  again  heaped  upon  the  ex-Patriarch  on  his  retiring 
to  seek  health  among  the  islands  and  at  the  Broussa  Spas;  not- 
withstanding this,  the  election  of  his  successor  had  already  taken 
place,  and  all  the  salutations  consequent  thereupon  had  been  ex- 
changed. Surely  this  is  an  example  of  toleration  not  unworthy 
of  the  attention  of  some  Christian  sects  and  countries. 

In  these  modern  days,  the  hierarchy  of  the  Greek  Church  is  di- 
vided into  three  classes.  These  are  the  patriarchs,  the  archbishops 
and  the  bishops,  who  cannot  be  married,  and  are  chosen  from  the 
monastic  orders.  Next  follow  the  parochial  clergy,  who  must  be 
married  men.  Then  the  monks,  who,  as  stated,  are  not  allowed 
to  marry. 

There  are  many  divisions  of  monks.  Some  are  ascetic.  The 
latter  live  apart  in  cottages.  They  approach  the  condition  of 
Anchorites.  Some  are  Cenobites.  The  latter  are  more  social  m 
their  retirement.  The  communities  have  various  governments. 
In  some  the  government  resembles  a  commonwealth.  A  monetary 
■consideration  is  sometimes  given  on  entering  a  fraternity.  Then 
the  admitted  monk  becomes  part  proprietor  of  the  possessions. 
Many  of  the  monks  do  their  own  work.  In  the  monastery  of 
Mount  Sinai  the  brethren  have  serfs.  These  are  taken  from  the 
Arab  tribes.  Most  of  the  monasteries  are  in  a  state  of  decay. 
None  of  them  are  what  they  used  to  be  in  the  former  times  of 
monastic  power. 

In  a  little  volume  called  the  "  Isles  of  the  Princes,"  published 
•contemporaneously  with  this  volume,  by  the  Putnams,  the  author 
has  endeavored  to  picture  the  life  and  habits,  as  well  as  the 
structures  and  localities,  of  these  institutions. 

It  may  be  that  the  modern  orthodox  Greek  is  thoroughly 
pious.  If  his  phraseology,  in  some  parts  of  Turkey,  is  competent 
evidence  in  his  behalf,  it  will  be  hard  to  prove  that  he  is  not 
always  thinking  of  his  Maker.  When  you  bid  him  good  by,  he 
says  : 


276 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


"In  the  name  of  God,  Farewell  " 

If  you  ask  for  water  at  dinner,  an  orthodox  gentleman  will 
reply : 

"  By  God!  I  will  give  it  to  you,  for  God's  sake." 

If  some  one  should  ask  whether  the  cook  has  boiled  the  vege- 
tables sufficiently,  the  probable  answer  is  : 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  he  has  not." 

This  is  not  pure  profanity.  It  emanates  from  the  habit  of 
orthodox  veneration.     Still,  it  grates  on  Occidental  ears. 

The  devotion  to  the  Greek  Church  of  the  peasant,  especially  if 
he  be  a  Slav,  is  something  astounding  to  Western  Christians.  If  the 
banner  of  their  Father,  the  Czar,  were  to  be  raised  to-morrow 
against  the  Turk,  there  would  be  another  Crusade, with  all  the  Mid- 
dle Age  fanaticism.  The  number  of  pilgrims  who  passed  through 
Odessa  in  the  year  a.  d.  1886  for  Jerusalem,  Mount  Athos,  and 
other  sacred  places  was  five  thousand.  These  were  mostly  of  the 
agricultural  class. 

Yet  sometimes  this  Church,  even  in  the  midst  of  the  Greeks, 
has  its  little  drawbacks.  In  the  spring  of  a.  d.  1887  a  strike  was 
going  on  in  the  island  of  Scio — Homer's  own  island.  It  was 
a  strange  strike.  The  people  did  not  promptly  pay  their  tithes 
to  the  Church.  The  priests  refused  to  exercise  their  office.  The 
priests  appealed  to  the  Bishop.  He  tried  to  help  his  clergy  by 
putting  the  excited  parishes  under  his  interdict.  The  ecclesi- 
astical interdict  was  a  new  thing  at  this  time.  It  was  familiar 
enough  in  the  Middle  Ages.  When  it  occurs,  the  clergy  must 
abstain  from  the  exercise  of  their  ministry.  There  is  no  baptism, 
no  marriage,  no  masses  and  no  burying  of  the  dead  with  the  rites  of 
the  Church.  In  this  dire  extremity  some  of  the  laity  perform  the 
most  pressing  offices,  such  as  burying  the  dead.  Still, the  departed 
are  buried  without  ecclesiastical  aid  or  ceremony.  It  is  not  a 
satisfactory  burial  for  the  corpse  or  its  friends.  The  people 
become  more  or  less  restless  and  confused.  The  women  are  un- 
happy. What  do  they  do  ?  They  request  the  secular  governor, 
a  Turk,  to  make  the  Christian  priests  who  are  on  a  strike,  return, 
to  their  duty  !  The  governor  asks  the  Porte  for  directions.  Thus 
it  is  again,  that  even  in  a  quarrel  between  a  Christian  priest  and 
his  flock,  redress  rests  in  the  hand  of  the  Caliph  of  Mahomet ! 

It  is  very  hard,  however,  to  be  rid  of  ritual.  It  is  a  part  of 
that  symbolism,  art  and  commemoration  which  sways  all  souls 


PERMANENCY  OF  THE  GREEK  CHURCH. 


2/7 


that  look  to  a  future  world;  for  there  will  ever  be  a  class  of 
minds  which  require  architecture,  music  or  ceremony,  even  at 
the  grave,  to  lead  them  up  through  and  despite  of  the  contam- 
inated reason  of  man  to  a  higher  world,  whose  peace  passeth  all 
understanding. 

It  is  owing  as  much  to  its  ritual  as  to  its  fixedness,  that  the 
■Greek  Church  has  become  so  powerful  and  permanent.  Its 
obedience  is  more  passive  than  that  of  the  Latin  Church.  It  is 
Jess  restless  than  that  Church.  In  Russia  it  claims  immortality 
because  of  its  immobility.  When  the  Latin  Church  was  contend- 
ing in  politics  and  fighting  evils  in  the  moral  realm,  the  Greek  was 
contending  over  frivolous  questions,  such  as,  "Did  the  Saviour 
ascend  in  his  robes,  or  naked  ? " 

But  for  its  logomachy,  it  might  have  held  Constantinople  to- 
day, by  a  generous  unity  with  Rome. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE    LATIN    CHURCH — THE   ARMENIAN-CATHOLIC — THE   ARMENIAN! 
GREGORIAN   CHURCHES — BULGARIAN   AND    OTHER   CHURCHES. 

To  the  general  reader,  in  America  and  Europe,  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  give  either  an  analysis  or  a  history  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
Its  tenets  and  annals  are  discussed  in  the  Occident  with  fullness- 
and  freedom.  Its  life  in  the  East,  where  it  is  known  as  the  Latia 
Church,  as  distinguished  from  the  Greek  Church,  it  is  not  a  part 
of  these  Diversions  to  portray.  Originally  championed  hy 
France,  inspired  by  the  Crusades,  the  companion  of  the  commer- 
cial enterprise  of  France,  Spain,  and  especially  Italy,  it  has  left 
an  indelible  impression  on  the  land  of  its  early  apostles.  The 
conflicts  between  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches  for  supremacy 
and  for  the  guardianship  of  the  Holy  Places,  and  other  subordi- 
nate contests,  mark  the  importance  and  strength  of  the  Latin 
Church  and  the  dominancy  of  the  Holy  Father  at  Rome  over  the 
Latin  religionists  of  the  East.  It  requires  no  prolonged  residence 
in  Constantinople,  Jerusalem,  Smyrna,  Alexandria  or  the  other 
prominent  cities  in  the  Turkish  dominion,  to  ascertain  that  the 
good  and  learned  men  and  the  unselfish  and  devoted  women  of 
the  Latin  Church  have  a  field  for  their  exertions  in  the  East 
which  every  tolling  bell  and  melodious  vesper,  from  its  every 
church  and  convent,  echo  with  solemn,  sweet  vibrations. 

The  present  Pope  has  followed  the  plan  of  his  predecessors  in 
reference  to  those  Eastern  communions  which  had  been  alienated 
from  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  heresy  of  Nestorius,  which  is 
as  old  as  the  fifth  century,  gave  to  Christ  two  natures,  one  divine 
and  the  other  human,  and  which  held  it  to  be  an  abomination  ta 
call  Mary  the  Mother  of  God;  and  that  of  Eutyches,the  contem- 
porary of  Nestorius,  which  denied  this  double  nature  of  Christ, 
holding  that  he  was  entirely  God  previous  to  the  Incarnation,  and 
entirely  man   during  the  Incarnation — these,  together  with  the 

278 


CATHOLIC  RELATIONS  TO  THE  EAST. 


279 


schism  of  Photius,  gave  to  an  earlier  Leo — viz.,  Leo  IIL — infinite 
concern.  He  began  the  work  of  reconciliation,  and  he  suc- 
ceeded. The  Holy  See  was  thus  strengthened  in  the  East.  But 
it  was  attacked  by  the  Russians  or  its  Greek  co-religionists.  This 
was  as  late  as  a.  d.  1871-72-73  and  '74.  The  vengeful  Cossack 
whip  was  used  to  scourge  the  Catholic  devotee.  That  failing, 
fines  were  tried.  In  a.  d.  1875,  as  will  be  seen  in  Father 
O'Reilly's  "Life  of  Leo  XHI.,"  page  382,  fifty  thousand  per- 
sons and  twenty-six  priests  were  forced  to  abjure  the  Catholic 
communion  and  join  the  orthodox  Greek  Church.  These  facts 
are  authentic.  They  were  plainly  told  to  the  Czar  Nicholas  when 
he  visited  Rome,  and  by  the  Pope  himself,  with  great  excitation. 
During  the  Turko-Russian  War  of  a.  d.  1877-78  some  mollification 
of  this  persecution  was  made  by  the  Czar;  but  it  was  made  out  of 
politic  motives.  After  the  war  ended,  the  road  to  Siberia  was 
again  thronged  with  Catholic  martyrs,  and  the  vengeful  Cossack 
whip  began  to  scourge  anew. 

How  did  this  treatment  of  Catholics  by  Russia  affect  Turkish 
Catholics?  In  this  way:  The  Czar  is  the  father  of  the  Slavonic 
orthodox  Church.  Many  of  its  members  reside  in  the  Turkish 
dominions.  Pilgrims  from  Turkey  go  to  Rome  and  lay  at  the 
feet  of  the  Holy  Father  their  devotion.  These  signs  of  sympathy 
led  to  practical  measures  to  unite  the  Slavonic  Catholics  closer  to 
the  Papal  see.  The  hierarchy  was  established  in  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina. 

A  college  founded  at  Rome  in  a.  d.  1577,  known  as  the  College 
of  St.  Athanasius,  is  a  nursery  for  Greek  students.  Therein  is 
taught  the  Catholic  liturgy  and  the  Catholic  chant  in  Greek, 
together  with  the  graces  of  Greek  oratory.  Through  this  medium 
the  Greek  colonies  and  isles,  and  other  places  along  the  Mediter- 
ranean where  the  Greeks  reside  or  their  language  is  spoken,  are 
furnished  with  Catholic  teachers,  and  its  churches  are  inspired 
with  the  ritual  of  St.  Peter. 

Catholic  churches  farther  east,  even  to  the  borders  of  Persia, 
have  been  in  great  straits.  It  is  to  these  venerable  churches  that 
special  attention  has  lately  been  given  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.  The 
Chaldean  Church  had  been  widowed  by  the  death  of  a  Patriarch. 
He  had  been  contumacious  in  his  allegiance  to  the  pontificate. 
But  he  returned  to  his  duty.  After  his  decease  a  new  Patriarch 
of  **  Babylon  of  the   Chaldeans,"    Monsigneur   Abolionan,  was 


2 8o  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

elected.  The  Sultan  confirmed  his  election.  The  Porte  ratified 
what  St,  Peter  had  done.  It  was  a  guaranty  of  protection  and 
toleration.  Thus  old  Mesopotamia  was  reinstated  in  its  early 
Christian  allegiance,  the  Moslem  consenting. 

It  would  seem,  from  the  history  of  Catholicism  in  the  East, 
that  the  dogma  of  infallibility  had  created  division  there,  as  it 
had  in  Bavaria.  The  Armenians  led  in  this  dissent.  This  schism 
left  some  heart-burning  and  scars.  An  attempt  was  made,  with 
measurable  success  for  a  time,  to  enlist  the  Sultan  on  the  side  of 
the  schismatics.  The  prudent  course  of  the  present  Pope  has  not 
only  healed  up  the  old  wounds,  but  has  enfolded,  through  the  aid 
of  the  Sultan,  those  who  had  been  recusant. 

It  was  a  great  gratification  to  the  Catholics  of  Turkey  when, 
on  the  nth  of  December,  1880,  the  Pope  rewarded  Monseigneur 
Hassun,  who  had  received  much  ecclesiastical  buffeting,  by 
bestowing  upon  him  the  Roman  purple.  After  four  centuries  the 
Orient  secured  another  cardinal.  The  Sultan  was  honored  by 
the  choice.  He  acknowledges  this  tribute  to  his  Armenian  subject. 
The  Sultans  have  never  lacked  in  the  hospitalities  of  the  Orient. 

In  furtherance  of  his  plan,  the  Pope  has  instituted  an  Armen- 
ian college  in  Rome.  Education  is  progressing  amidst  the 
Armenians  and  Chaldeans.  The  Dominicans  have  a  college  at 
Mossoul,  on  the  Tigris.  Where  Abraham  was  born,  where  Babylon 
rose  and  fell,  where  empire  came  and  went  in  luxury  and  con- 
quest, and  in  these  domains  where  the  past  predominates — the 
living  word,  according  to  the  Catholic  faith,  is  being  taught 
to  the  descendants  of  these  historic  people. 

It  is  not  this  Latin  Church  to  which  this  chapter  is  assigned. 
There  is  a  branch  of  the  Latin  Church  peculiarly  Oriental, 
which  is  in  close  association  with  the  Papal  authority  at  Rome. 
It  is  of  the  Armenian  branch  that  I  propose  to  speak.  But  this 
Armenian  Catholic  Church  is  itself  an  offshoot  of  the  Armenian 
Church  proper  ;  and  therefore  it  is  that  I  begin  with  a  full  state- 
ment of  the  system  and  history  of  the  latter.  This  statement 
may  have  its  interest  enhanced  by  the  bold  attempt  of  the  Rus- 
sian White  Father — the  Czar — to  capture  the  land  of  Armenia, 
as  well  by  force  of  arms  and  steam  locomotion  as  by  educational 
influences  and  religious  propagandism.  It  is  the  belief  of  the 
writer  that  Russia  would  be  willing  to  forego  her  entrance  into 
Constantinople,  and  would  be  content  with  seeing  the  Crescent 


THE  ARMENIANS.  28 1 

float  for  many  years  yet  over  St.  Sophia,  provided  she  could  absorb 
the  land  about  Erzeroum  and  Trebizond.  Nay,  Russia  would 
not  question  the  title  of  the  fresh  prince  of  Bulgaria,  or  the  con- 
trol of  that  country  by  its  own  Sobranje,  or  its  own  autonomy, 
provided  she  controls  the  lofty  plateau  whence  the  "  four  great 
rivers  "  pour  down  their  waters  in  various  directions.  Then  she 
would  have  and  hold  the  nucleus  of  the  mountain  system  of  West- 
ern Asia,  and  thus  be  fortified  for  the  great  struggle  for  which 
she  is  preparing,  against  all  comers  who  challenge  her  magnificent 
Asiatic  career  of  conquest. 

The  fact  that  the  brightest  of  the  Armenian  race  is  being 
instructed  in  Robert  College  and  in  the  United  States,  and 
return  to  the  Armenian  people  as  teachers  in  theology  and  mor- 
ality, is  significant  of  that  future  when  the  question  shall  be 
raised,   "  Shall  it  be  Cossack  or  republican  ?  " 

The  Armenians  are  a  very  ancient  race.  Before  their  conver- 
sion to  Christianity  they  were  Fire  Worshippers,  like  many  of  the 
other  Asiatic  nationalities.  The  Christian  faith  was  introduced 
into  Armenia  by  the  apostle  Andrew,  toward  the  end  of  the 
third  century.  This  was  in  the  reign  of  King  Tiridatis.  From 
him  the  new  religion  received  all  the  patronage  and  support  in  his 
power.  Tiridatis  subsequently  sent  Gregory,  an  Armenian  of 
staunch  religious  principles  and  much  learning,  to  Leontius,  the 
Greek  Bishop  of  Caesarea.  The  king  requested  that  Leontius 
would  ordain  Gregory  as  a  bishop.  This  request  was  complied 
with.  Gregory  on  his  return  to  Armenia  baptized  the  King.  The 
King  then  ordered  the  entire  population  to  be  baptized  in  the . 
river  Euphrates. 

Besides  the  Armenians,  Gregory  baptized  a  large  number  of 
Persians,  Medes  and  Assyrians.  History  gives  the  number  as 
about  four  million  persons.  He  founded  several  churches,  and 
appointed  a  number  of  bishops  to  administer  the  affairs.  Aros- 
tanes,  a  son  of  Gregory,  had  been  ordained  by  his  father 
Archbishop  Catholicos  of  the  whole  of  Armenia.  Arostanes 
accompanied  King  Tiridatis  to  Nicaea  at  the  time  of  the  assem- 
bling of  the  First  CEcumenical  Synod.  In  this  synod  the  Archbishop 
took  a  leading  part.  During  their  stay  in  Nicaea,  he  and  King 
Tiridatis  were  entertained  with  special  honor  by  the  Emperor 
Constantine  the  Great. 

In  after  years  the  Armenian  Church  was  exposed  to  severe 


282  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  LV  TURKE  Y. 

trials  and  tribulations  at  the  hands  of  the  kings  of  Persia,  ta 
whom  Armenia  had  become  a  tributary.  The  worst  persecutions 
of  the  Christians  in  that  part  of  the  world  were  in  the  reign  of  the 
Persian  King  Savor.  By  his  orders  ten  thousand  persons  were 
put  to  death.  Men,  women  and  young  girls  suffered  the  most 
horrible  tortures.  Neither  this  nor  subsequent  measures,  how- 
ever, were  effectual  in  suppressing  the  passionate  attachment  of 
the  Armenian  and  Persian  Christians  to  their  faith.  This  attach- 
ment to  it  was  so  strong  that  they  voluntarily  submitted  to  a 
royal  edict  that  was  issued,  ordering  every  one  who  acknowledged 
the  Christian  religion  to  be  forthwith  put  to  death.  The  poor 
Armenian  devotees  came  before  the  authorities,  of  their  own 
accord,  to  declare  their  faith  in  Christ.  They  feared  that  by 
remaining  silent  they  should  appear  to  deny  Him.  At  last  the 
Emperor  Constantine  the  Great  was  apprised  of  their  sufferings. 
He  wrote  a  strong  letter  on  the  subject  to  Savor.  This  had  the 
effect  of  persuading  that  monarch  to  cease  his  tyrannical  oppres- 
sion of  the  Christians  in  his  dominions. 

The  doctrines,  ritual,  and  general  organization  of  the  Arme- 
nian Church  were  borrowed  originally  from  the  Eastern  Church. 
The  Armenian  Church  grew  up  under  the  see  of  Csesarea.  It 
remained  under  the  partial  jurisdiction  of  that  see  for  nearly  a 
century.  The  successive  Catholicos,  or  Archbishops,  of  Armenia 
were  invariably  appointed  and  ordained  during  that  time  by  the 
Metropolitans  of  Caesarea.  Afterward,  the  Catholicos  solicited 
and  obtained  his  franchise  from  that  see.  The  Armenian  Church 
then  became  practically  independent.  It  continued  to  be  in  direct 
communion  with  the  Eastern  Church  until  the  assembling  of  the 
Fourth  CEcumenical  Synod.  This  synod  was  held  in  Chalcedon 
in  A.  D.  451.  The  Armenians  were  unable  to  attend  it,  owing  to 
an  invasion  of  the  Persians  under  their  king,  Toudigerd.  This 
king  laid  waste  the  whole  country.  He  carried  off  the  Catho- 
licos and  a  large  number  of  the  Armenian  clergy  to  Persia. 
They  refused  to  worship  the  Sacred  Fire,  and  he  put  them 
to  death.  The  Armenians,  owing  to  the  narrowness  of  their 
tongue,  did  not  appreciate  the  precise  meaning  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Incarnation  as  established  by  that  synod.  They 
imagined  that  the  synod  had  admitted  the  Nestorian  theory  on 
the  subject.  This  theory,  they  knew,  had  been  already  condemned 
as  heretical.  They  therefore  rejected  the  decisions  of  the  synod. 


ARMENIAN  DIFFICUL  TIES.  28^ 

and  broke  off  all  further  intercourse  with  the  other  Christian 
Churches.  Subsequently,  however,  they  received  satisfactory- 
explanations  from  a  mission  sent  expressly  from  Constantinople. 
They  then  agreed  to  reconsider  the  matter.  A  grand  conclave  of 
the  Armenian  clergy  was,  accordingly,  held  in  Erzeroum,  in  the 
year  a,  d.  628.  The  question  at  issue  was  carefully  considered. 
Ultimately  they  decided  to  withdraw  their  previous  rejection  of 
the  decisions  of  the  Fourth  (Ecumenical  Synod.  Thus  the  Arme- 
nians recognized  the  validity  of  that  synod  and  accepted  the 
precepts  laid  down  by  it.  But  these  proceedings  do  not  appear 
to  have  met  with  general  approval  in  Armenia.  Shortly  after- 
ward a  faction  headed  by  a  theologian  named  John  Vartabet 
called  another  convocation.  This  assembly  unanimously  de- 
nounced both  the  Armenian  synod,  held  at  Erzeroum,  and  the 
Fourth  CEcumenical  Synod.  They  refused  to  accept  the  decisions, 
of  either.  The  Armenians  thus  became  divided  among  themselves 
into  two  factions. 

The  strife  between  these  factions  lasted  for  a  considerable 
time.  At  length  the  Catholicos  Narses — a  man  of  great  adminis- 
trative ability,  with  a  strong  leaning  toward  the  decisive  union 
of  the  Armenian  with  the  Eastern  Church — wrote  on  the  subject 
to  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  Manuel  Comnenus,  in  a.  d. 
1170.  He  requested  the  Emperor  to  send  some  noted  theo- 
logical scholar  to  Armenia,  to  discuss  the  matter  and  find  a  means- 
of  bringing  about  the  desired  union.  The  object  was  to  put  an  end 
to  the  internal  dissensions  of  the  Armenian  Church.  The  Empe- 
ror, desiring  this,  promptly  responded  to  the  request  of  the 
Catholicos.  He  sent  Lucian  Theorianus,  a  distinguished  professor 
of  theology.  Narses  went  to  meet  him  at  Roum-Kale,  a  small 
town  on  the  Black  Sea.  For  several  days  the  two  learned  men 
were  engaged  in  discussing  the  different  points  on  which  the 
Greek  and  Armenian  Churches  were  at  variance.  Theorianus 
argued  that  the  difference  had  arisen  out  of  erroneous  interpre- 
tation, on  the  part  of  the  Armenians,  of  some  of  the  decisions  of 
the  synods  and  of  certain  passages  of  the  Scriptures.  Narses  was 
deeply  anxious  for  the  removal  of  the  difference.  He  therefore 
admitted  the  arguments  of  the  Greek.  On  the  latter  taking  his 
departure,  Narses  entrusted  him  with  letters  to  the  Emperor  and 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  These  letters  admitted  his  entire 
acceptance  of  the  precepts  of  the  Eastern  Church.    He  expressed 


12  8  4  DIVERSIONS^  OF  A  DIPL  DMA  T  IN  TURfCE  V. 

his  ardent  desire  to  see  the  bonds  which  formerly  united  the  two 
Churches  drawn  closely  together.  He  promised  to  call,  at  an 
•early  day,  a  general  synod  of  the  Armenian  bishops.  This  was 
for  the  purpose  of  arranging  the  return  of  their  Church  to  com- 
munion with  the  Eastern  Church, 

Before  this  promise  could  be  carried  out  Nars^s  died.  At  first 
his  successor,  Gregory  IV.,  showed  an  eager  disposition  to  follow 
the  course  pursued  by  Narses  on  the  question  at  issue.  The  tak- 
ing of  Constantinople  by  the  Crusaders  at  this  juncture  caused  a 
break  in  the  negotiations.  A  turbulent  state  of  affairs  in  the 
East  followed  this  event.  The  Catholicos  changed  his  views  or 
policy.  He  approached  the  Armenians  with  offers  of  a  tempting 
nature.  He  persuaded  them  to  agree  to  a  union  with  the  Roman 
Church.  This  proposal  was  first  brought  forward  at  a  Synod  of 
the  Armenian  clergy,  held  at  Adana  in  a.  d.  13 14.  Subse- 
■quently  it  was  discussed  more  fully  at  another  convocation  which 
assembled  at  Sis,  the  capital  of  the  Armenian  regency  in  Cilicia, 
in  A.  D.  1367.  The  union  was  finally  decided  upon  at  a  grand 
•synod,  held  m  a.  d.  1370  at  Erzeroum.  At  this  convention  the 
Armenian  Church  adopted  the  doctrine  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
the  ritual  of  the  Latin  Church.  It  at  the  same  time  placed  itself 
under  the  jurisdiction  and  protection  of  Rome.  But  this  defer- 
ence to  Rome  does  not  appear  to  have  been  based  upon  very 
strong  foundations.  Shortly  afterward  the  great  body  of  the 
Armenians  returned  to  their  own  persuasion.  They  re-affirmed 
their  ecclesiastical  independence.  A  small  number,  however, 
remained  faithful  to  Rome.  This  offshoot  still  survives.  Its 
adherents  are  known  as  Armenian  Catholics,  to  distinguish  them 
from  the  Gregorians.  The  latter  are  the  followers  of  Gregory, 
the  first  bishop  of  Armenia.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  Armenian 
Church. 

The  supreme  authority  of  the  Gregorian  Church  is  still,  as  in 
former  years,  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholicos.  He  resides  in  the 
monastery  of  Achmiadjin,  near  Erivan,  in  Russian  Armenia. 
This  monastery  covers  a  large  area.  It  contains  three  magnificent 
■churches,  built  close  together  in  the  form  of  a  triangle.  Next  in 
•dignity  after  the  Catholicos  comes  the  Armenian  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, He  has  a  palace  at  Coum-Capon,  in  Stamboul.  He 
is  acknowledged  by  the  Turkish  authorities  as  chief  of  the  Arme- 
nian community.     On  state  occasions  he  is  allowed  to  take  rank 


THE  A&MENIAN-GREGORIAN  PATRIARCH,   MONSEIGNEUR  VEHABEDIAN. 


.85 


286  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

next  after  the  orthodox  Greek  (Ecumenical  Patriarch.  The  pres- 
.•ent  incumbent  is  Monseigneur  Vehabedian.  He  is  a  man  of  most 
imposing  appearance.  I  am  happy  in  securing  a  most  superb 
picture  of  this  prelate.  It  is  presented  herein.  His  features, 
•character  and  function  cannot  but  interest  the  American  readers, 
who,  if  not  attracted  by  the  history  of  the  remarkable  race  of 
which  he  is  a  type,  are  interested  in  the  progress  of  that  race  in 
the  Christian  faith,  evidenced  by  so  many  of  their  number  now 
sojourning  for  education  in  the  United  States. 

Politically,  the  Armenians  ceased  to  exist  as  a  self-governed 
nation,  as  far  back  as  a.  d.  223.  Armenia  was  invaded  by  Alex- 
ander the  Great.  Afterward  it  was  invaded  by  the  Roman  legions, 
under  Vespasian,  It  was  subsequently  annexed  to  Persia.  It 
remained  thus  until  a.  d.  852.  Then  it  was  conquered  by  the 
Arabs.  In  a.  d.  1079  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  Byzan- 
tine emperors.  It  was  taken  from  them  in  a.  d.  1357  by  the 
Mamelukes.  Finally,  in  a.'D.  1402,  it  became  a  part  of  the  Otto- 
man empire.  It  is  now  dismembered  and  apportioned  between 
Turkey,  Persia  and  Russia, 

The  Gregorian- Armenians  number  3,725,000  persons.  Of 
these  2,325,000  live  in  Turkey,  1,000,000  in  Russia  and  400,000  in 
Persia.  The  Catholic  Armenians  number  80,000  persons.  They 
are  mostly  in  Constantinople  and  in  the  larger  towns  of  Turkey. 
This  small  community  comprises  the  wealthiest  and  most  respect- 
able families  among  the  Armenians.  It  is  the  remnant  of  that 
portion  of  the  Church  which  broke  off  and  remained  faithful  to 
Rome  when  the  great  body  of  Armenians  denounced  the  conven- 
tion signed  at  Erzeroum  and  re-asserted  the  independence  of 
their  Church. 

Although  the  Armenian  Catholics  acknowledge  the  supremacy 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  they  preserve  much  of  the  Gregorian  form 
of  worship.  Their  Church  is  administered  quite  independently  of 
Rome.  Originally,  they  had  but  one  spiritual  chief,  bearing  the 
title  of  Patriarch.  He  had  his  seat  in  the  town  of  Bagarsabat. 
Then  he  removed  to  Sis,  in  Cilicia.  He  now  resides  in  the  mon- 
astery of  Vzomar,  on  Mount  Lebanon.  But  until  a.  d.  1832 
neither  this  chief  nor  the  community  itself  were  officially  recog- 
nized as  a  separate  religious  institution  by  the  Turkish  authori- 
ties. It  was  through  the  intercession  of  the  French  Ambassador 
in  Constantinople  that  they  then   obtained   permission  from  the 


ARMENIAN  CATHOLICS. 


287 


"Sublime  Porte  to  perform  openly  and  freely  their  religious  duties. 
After  this  time  they  had  churches  of  their  own.  This  was  a 
privilege  which  had  before  then  been  denied  them.  Until  this 
privilege  was  allowed  them,  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  have 
recourse  to  the  Gregorian-Armenian  priests  for  the  performance 
of  the  rites  of  baptism,  marriage  and  interment.  Their  divine 
service  had  also  to  be  conducted  in  the  Roman  Catholic  churches. 
Upon  their  official  recognition  by  the  state,  as  a  distinct  religious 
community,  they  obtained  the  right  of  electing  a  second  spiritual 
chief,  entirely  independent  of  the  one  at  Mount  Lebanon.  This 
is  the  chief  who  has  his  residence  at  Constantinople,  bearing  the 
title  of  Patriarch.  He  is  described  in  Turkish,  in  the  Imperial 
Firman,  as  Millet  Bashi  Ermeni  Catolic.  This  title  is  conferred 
upon  him  on  his  election  as  chief  of  the  Armeno-Catholic  com- 
munity. The  present  holder  of  this  office  is  Monseigneur  Azarian. 
He  is  a  highly  distinguished  prelate.  He  belongs  to  one  of  the 
most  noted  Armenian  families.  Recently  he  was  the  bearer  of  a 
superb  ring  from  the  Sultan  to  the  Pope.  The  other  spiritual 
chief  of  the  Armenian  Catholic  community,  who  resides  on  Mount 
Lebanon,  holds,  in  addition  to  his  other  title,  that  of  "Peter." 
This  was  conferred  by  Pope  Benedict  XIV.  On  Sundays  and 
great  fete  days  the  French  flag  floats  over  the  Armenian  Cath- 
olic churches.  This  is  done  as  a  sign  of  the  protection  afforded 
to  them  by  the  government  of  France. 

The  well-known  convent  of  St.  Lazare,  in  Venice,  belongs  to 
the  Armenian  Catholic  community.  It  is  inhabited  by  the  order 
of  Mectarist  monks.  It  is  thus  called  after  its  founder,  Mectar, 
who  died  in  a.  d.  1740.  From  this  convent  missionaries  used 
formerly  to  be  sent  into  Armenia  to  make  proselytes.  Their 
efforts  met  with  such  determined  resistance,  on  the  part  of  the 
Gregorians,  that  the  movement  had  to  be  given  up.  Since  that 
time  the  Mectarist  monks  have  turned  their  whole  attention  to  the 
development  of  Armenian  literature.  They  have  published  many 
useful  and  very  ably  written  works  relating  to  their  national  history. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  the  writer  to  dilate  in  this  volume  upon 
the  religious  aspects  and  divisions  of  the  various  Churches  of  the 
East,  or  to  express  any  opinion  upon  their  dissensions.  It  may 
be  permissible,  however,  to  express  the  hope  that  a  closer  affilia- 
tion and  unity  may  soon  take  into  its  embrace  the  whole  Church 
of  Christ. 


288  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

Bulgaria  has  become  prominent  in  the  Oriental  question.  Her 
Church  is  only  identical  with  the  Greek  Church  in  doctrine  and 
ritual.  It  is  not  now  in  communication  with  that  Church.  It 
long  since  rejected  the  Church  of  Rome.  A  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago  it  ceased  to  harmonize  with  the  Greek  Church.  After  a 
controversy  extending  over  twenty  years  it  illustrated  its  inde- 
pendence by  severing  its  relation  with  the  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople. The  Bulgarian  Church  has  now  its  own  Exarch. 
He  is  the  spiritual  head  of  the  Church.  Like  the  other  Patriarchs, 
he  resides  at  Constantinople.  His  name  is  Monseigneur  Josif. 
His  independence  of  spirit  was  shown  even  agamst  Midhat  Pasha 
at  the  time  the  latter  was  paramount  in  the  councils  of  the  Nota- 
bles and  Reformers.  It  is  one  of  the  strange  things  connected 
with  the  career  of  Midhat,  that  he  persecuted  and  was  about  to 
imprison  the  Exarch  and  his  friends  up  to  the  very  last  moment 
of  his  power.  Midhat  was  dismissed  from  the  sovereign  favor  of 
the  Sultan.  It  is  a  part  of  the  history  and  treatment  of  the 
Exarch  of  Bulgaria,  that  he  was  banished  to  a  fortress,  because  he 
declined  to  sign  a  statement  that  the  Christians  were  opposed  to 
their  deliverance  f-rom  the  Turks  by  the  Russians. 

The  service  of  this  Bulgarian  Church  is  conducted  in  the 
Slavonic  tongue,  which  is  regarded  by  the  Bulgarians  as  a  sort  of 
religious  language.  It  is  the  same  language  that  is  used  in  Russia 
and  other  Slavonic  countries. 

Greek  Christianity  is  not  the  only  religion  in  Bulgaria.  Much 
religious  dissent  has  appeared  recently  in  that  country.  This  is 
attributable  to  the  spirit  of  investigation  which  comes  from  edu- 
cation and  freedom  of  speech.  In  fact,  there  is  a  reformation 
growing  out  of  the  relations  which  Robert  College  has  for  several 
years  sustained  with  Bulgaria.  This  is  the  only  case  of  American 
intervention  in  the  East  that  has  come  under  my  notice.  One 
thing  is  certain:  the  Bulgarian  Christians  have  been  more  or  less 
influenced  by  the  large  roundabout  liberalities  and  learning  of 
Robert  College.  I  should  signalize  the  grand  work  of  Doctor 
Long,  of  that  College.  He  has  translated  the  Bible  into  the  Bul- 
garian language.  He  is  an  American,  from  West  Virginia.  He 
is  one  of  a  class  of  men  of  rare  scholarly  minds.  He  does  not 
allow  his  devotion  to  the  medical  profession  and  his  love  of  phy- 
sical science  to  detract  from  the  earnestness  of  his, faith  or  his 
reverence  for  the  Deity.    In  the  future  history  of  the  reformation 


THE  WASHINGTON  COAT.OF-ARMS. 


289 


in  Bulgaria,  much  of  its  impulse  will  be  traced  to  Robert  Col- 
lege and  to  this  distmguished  American.  Upon  this  phase  of  East- 
ern life  it  will  be  my  pleasure  and  privilege  to  enlarge  hereafter. 

There  is  one  romance  connecting  America  with  the  Orient, 
and  religion  with  patriotism,  which  should  be  recorded.  It  involves 
the  "  Star  Spangled  Banner."  I  warn  my  reader  that  with  this  se- 
date subject  of  religion  I  am  about  to  associate  a  patriotic  incident. 

The  Washington  family  has  been  traced  back  to  the  time  of 
the  Norman  Conquest,  and  to  the  north  of  the  H umber.  The 
princely  see  of  Durham  had  a  prelate  who  was  a  feudatory  of  the 
Conqueror.  He  was  a  warrior-priest,  and  had  many  feudatories 
under  him.  Among  the  rest  was  the  knightly  William  De  Hert- 
burn,  who,  in  exchanging  his  village  of  Hertburn  for  the  Manor 
of  Wessynton,  gave  not  only  the  first  recorded  link  in  the  family, 
but  the  immortal  name  of  Washington,   "further  West." 

The  Ottoman  dynasty  had  risen  to  a  formidable  power  ;  and 
Richard  the  Lion  Hearted  had  pawned  his  patrimony  for  a  Crusade, 
and  had  been  imprisoned  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosporus  ;  the 
story  of  the  Plantagenets  had  been  played  before  the  world  ; 
stately  and  warlike  scenes  in  the  West  and  East  had  come  and 
gone  ;  and  the  name  of  De  Wessynton,  after  illustrating  many 
heroic  qualities,  had  died  out  from  the  chivalric  rolls  of  Durham; 
but  it  was  preserved  in  the  cloister  by  a  doughty  abbot.  The 
stock  was  divided  into  various  branches.  It  was  scattered 
over  England.  About  the  time  the  great-grandson  of  the  Con- 
queror of  Constantinople — Suleiman  the  Magnificent — had  raised 
his  realm  to  its  acme  of  fame,  one  of  the  Washingtons,  Laurence, 
was  practising  law  at  Gray's  Inn.  When  the  Sultan  Ibrahim  was 
trying  to  foil  the  intrigues  of  the  Eunuchs,  Colonel  Henry  Wash- 
ington was  defending  the  city  of  Worcester  for  King  Charles 
against  Cromwell.  Happily  for  America,  England  became 
uncomfortable  for  the  Cavaliers  who  had  fought  for  the  Stuarts, 
and  the  brothers  John  and  Andrew  Washington  emigrated  to 
loyal  old  Virginia.  John  settled  near  the  Potomac.  His  grand- 
son Augustine  was  there  l)orn.  There  he  lived,  married  and 
died.  Of  his  sons,  George  was  the  eldest.  But,  as  the  genealogy 
shows,  although  he  was  out  of  the  direct  line,  he  had  inherited 
the  stamina  of  the  stock. 

What  of  all  this,  now  and  here  ?  There  is  another  George 
Washington  living  at  Constantinople.     He  is  the  chaplain  of  the 


-zgo 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


British  Legation,  and  by  no  means  mute,  if  not  so  glorious  as 
his  American  namesake.  He  is  in  the  direct  line  from  the  De 
Wessyntons  of  the  Conquest.  In  his  keeping  is  the  crest  of  the 
family.  What  is  the  romance  to  which  I  have  adverted  ?  Noth- 
ing less  than  the  incomparable  growth  of  a  great  Western  nation, 
directed,  moderated,  energized  and  inspired  by  a  descendant  of 
the  martial  and  priestly  family  whose  stock  is  traced  in  the  stal- 
wart folk  of  Northumberland,  and  whose  branches  are  as  widely 
apart  as  the  Bosporus  and  the  Potomac. 

The  Rev.  George  Washington  is  an  accomplished  gentleman 
and  scholar.  He  is  quite  friendly  to  Americans,  as,  of  course, 
he  should  be.  I  cannot  refrain  from  inserting  here  a  little  note 
which  he  sent  to  my  wife.  It  contained  his  own  card,  and,  doubt- 
less, the  arms  on  that  card,  as  has  been  often  surmised,  if  not 
proven,  gave  the  first   idea   of  the   American    "Star   Spangled 

Banner." 

"  Pera,  January  19,  1886. 
"  Dear  Mrs.  Cox  :  It  might  interest  Mr.  Cox  to  see  these  quarterings,  of 
which  I  was  speaking  to  you  the  other  evening.     You  see  the  '  Stars  and 
Stripes '  are  there.     I  have  always  heard  that  the  story  I  mentioned  to  you 
was  correct,  viz. :  that,  casting  about  for  a  flag  when  independence  had  been 
declared,  the  Americans  thought  that  they  could  not  do  better  than  take  their 
General's  family  quarterings  as  a  foundation. 
"  Hence  the  .Stars  and  Stripes  ! 
"  With  kind  regards,  believe  me, 

"  Yours,  very  truly, 

"George  Washington." 


CHAPTER     XXIII. 

AMERICAN    MISSIONS   IN   TURKEY — THEIR    MAGNITUDE, 
OBSTACLES   AND    RIGHTS. 

The  long  continuance  of  the  Ottoman  empire  is  a  more  difficult 
problem  than  its  decadence.  I  have  attributed  this  continuance 
to  "liberal  institutions  and  laws."  If  the  decadence  has  set  in, 
it  is  because  the  Ottoman  is  beginning  to  repent  of  these  liberal- 
ities, and  to  resort  to  a  system  of  persecution  quite  alien  to  his 
earlier  modes  and  "  Capitulations." 

There  is  a  class  of  citizens  in  Turkey  called  "  rayahs."  They 
.are  Christians  of  various  races — Armenian,  Greek  and  Bulgarian. 
When  Constantinople  was  taken  by  Mahomed  the  Conqueror, 
he  did  not  commit  one  tithe  of  the  outrages  or  illustrate  one- 
thousandth  part  of  the  wrath  of  the  Christian  princes  who  broke 
"down  the  Greek  empire  in  a.  d.  1203.  He  elevated  the  Christians 
and  Jews.  He  created  an  i7nperiu7n  in  imperio  of  ecclesiastical 
•dignitaries  and  functions.  He  gave  Greek  and  Armenian  patri- 
archs for  Greeks  and  Armenians,  and  a  Jewish  chief-rabbi  for 
the  Hebrews.  The  Sultan  himself  invested  them.  They  were 
•civil  chiefs  as  well,  and  they  remain  as  such.  To-day  there  is 
nominally  a  head  for  the  Catholic  or  Latin  Church,  and  one  also 
for  the  Protestants.  The  office  of  the  latter  is  vacant.  As  one 
sign  of  the  times,  the  vacancy  remains  unfilled,  despite  protests. 

These  respective  heads  of  the  religious  sects  tend  to  make 
Christians  and  Hebrews  free  in  their  consciences  and  souls. 
Imperial  irades  confirm  these  grants.  Education  is  also  guaran- 
teed. In  the  division  of  the  municipal  authority,  the  Christians 
are  not  omitted.  Most  of  these  grants  were  called  '*  Capitulations," 
not  because  they  indicate  a  capitulation  on  the  part  of  the  Porte 
after  conquest,  to  Christians  and  Jews,  but  because  they  are  em- 
bodied in  a  code  of  "  Chapters,"  or  "  Heads,"  from  "caput." 

Recently  the  Porte  has  endeavored  to  get  rid  of  some  of  these 
•"  Chapters  ; "  but  they  remain,  like  our  bills  of  rights  or  the 

391 


292 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


Spanish  fueros.  If  not  executed,  they  remain  as  codes,  to  which 
appeal  may  be  made  when  persuasion  fails  and  force  is  near. 
These  Capitulations  were  of  special  service  to  the  American  mis- 
sionaries. These  men  began  their  life  work  as  early  as  a.  d.  1831. 
When  Messrs.  Goodell,  Dwight,  Shauffler  and  Holmes  came  here, 
they  did  not  meet  opposition  so  much  from  the  Turk  as  from 
their  fellow  Christians.  Dr.  Hamlin  began  in  1837  as  an  agent 
of  the  American  Board.  He  took  charge  of  a  school  which  was 
located  at  Candilli.  In  time,  through  the  aid  of  Mr.  Robert  and 
other  Americans,  it  became  the  Robert  College.  It  now  dominates 
the  European  side  of  the  Bosporus,  half-way  between  Constantino- 
ple and  the  upper  mouth  of  the  Straits.  The  vicissitudes  of  these 
early  American  missionary  heroes  were,  and  are,  those  of  a  peace- 
ful crusade,  full  of  Christian  effort,  and,  at  all  times,  of  danger. 
Commodore  Porter,  the  naval  hero,  father  of  our  Admiral,  was 
then  United  States  minister,  and  the  great  Englishman,  Sir  Strat- 
ford Canning,  was  then  potential  at  the  Porte.  The  Sultan 
Mahmoud,  who  destroyed  the  Janizaries  at  one  sanguinary  coup^ 
had  ]ust  died  when  Dr.  Hamlin  began  his  work.  Abdul  Medjid,  a 
youth  of  sixteen,  came  to  a  tottering  throne.  Mehemet  Ali,  the 
all-powerful  Viceroy  of  Egypt,  had  been  stopped  in  his  career  in 
Syria.  Reschid  Pasha,  who  died  in  exile  in  Arabia  a  few  years, 
ago,  was  the  foreign  minister.  He  gave  impulse  to  civil  and 
religious  freedom.  Shortly  after  Abdul  Medjid's  accession  the 
prescript  was  issued  known  as  Hatti-Cherif  of  Gul-Hane.  Like  a 
bombshell  it  fell  among  the  muftis.  It  is  called  Hatti-Cherif 
because  it  is  an  "  illustrious  writing,"  and  called  Gul-Hane,  or 
Rose  Garden,  after  the  usage  of  the  East,  where  names  are  given 
with  significant  associations.  The  Rose  Garden  was  the  name 
of  the  place  within  the  walls  of  the  old  Seraglio  Point,  where  this- 
happy  augury  of  Christian  progress  and  protection  was  proclaimed. 
That  garden  is  now  a  government  printing-office.  Where  once: 
the  houri  of  the  padishah  were  cribbed,  the  type-setters  and 
pressmen  fabricate  journals  and  volumes.  Standing  at  the- 
case,  or  distributing  type,  may  be  seen  a  hundred  printers,  with 
deft  fingers,  having  the  hand  of  "little  employment,  and  there- 
fore the  daintier  sense." 

Eheu  !  Postume  !  Postume — labunter  anni — how  the  years 
have  glided  since,  as  a  tourist,  on  my  honeymoon,  I  visited  this 
garden,  then  blooming  with  roses.     It  was  in  a.  d.   185  i — five: 


THE  ROSE  GARDEN. 


293 


years  before  the  Magna  Charta  for  rayah  and  Christian — that  I 
saw  Constantinople  for  the  first  time.  I  can  say  of  the  Seraglio 
and  the  Rose  Garden,  as  Burke  said  of  Marie  Antoinette,  "Never 
upon  this  orb  appeared  so  beauteous  a  vision."  Its  beauty  is 
fadeless,  though  it  is  only  a  memory. 

The  garden  of  roses  which  I  was  then  allowed  to  see  is  no 
more.  My  memory  of  it  was  that  of  an  Eden,  luxuriant  in  tree 
and  shrub.  The  cypresses  waved,  ever  green  and  fresh,  the 
vine  clung  to  the  wall,  whose  bare  face  it  decorated  with  green 
tendrils.  Tender-eyed  gazelles  peeped  out  of  leafy  coverts,  like 
•odalisques  of  large  sad  eyes.  Arches  and  pyramids  of  green 
foliage  bent  and  rose  in  every  vista.  There  was  then  a  mimic 
lake  occupying  the  centre  of  this  garden  of  pleasure.  It  is  now 
only  a  lake  in  a  garden  of  pleasant  memory,  for  a  railroad  makes 
its  practical  curve  around  the  seraglio  site.  There  were  isles, 
and  rustic  bridges,  and  shell  walks,  margined  with  roses  which 
the  nightingales  wooed.  Orange  bowers  were  pendant  with  golden 
fruitage.  Fragrance  filled  the  air  from  rare  shrubbery,  whether 
imported  or  exotic  I  then  never  cared  to  know.  It  was  in  life's  dawn. 
The  garniture  of  nature  screened  each  charming  bower. 

I  did  not  surmise  then  that  this  garden  of  roses  would  ever 
give  to  the  long-suffering  rayah  and  Christian,  guarantees  of 
justice  and  freedom.  Yet  from  this  Rose  Garden  came  the  "  thought 
of  the  public  good,"  and  the  recitations  of  trust  in  Allah  that  the 
subjects  of  the  Sultan  should  be  ensured  "  perfect  security  for 
life,  honor  and  property,  fair  taxes  and  honest  methods  in  their 
collection,  and  deliverance  from  the  scourge  of  monopolies." 
Hear  ye  this,  oh  America!  No  venal  concessions,  no  soldiering 
to  destroy  agricultural  industry,  fair  trial  of  the  accused,  no  death 
secretly  or  publicly,  by  poison  or  by  any  other  form;  in  fine,  a 
council  of  justice.  In  the  presence  of  the  relics  of  the  Prophet 
and  of  all  the  Ulema  and  grandees  of  the  empire,  the  Sultan  took 
an  oath  to  observe  these  grants  to  the  people,  with  a  penalty  for 
their  violation.  And  the  roses,  in  their  sweetest  attar^  effloresced 
an  "  Amen  !" 

This  was  a  splendid  tribute  to  the  genius  and  order  of  Turkey 
in  the  afternoon  of  its  existence. 

Was  this  Magna  Charta  regarded  ?  Is  it  obsolete  now?  Yes, 
and  no.  It  accomplished  much  to  elevate  and  advance  the 
public  service  and  popular  well-being.  In  spite  of  '  old  Turkey  " 


294 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


there  was  opened  the  path  to  schools,  to  printing,  to  reparation  of 
wrong  and  the  vindication  of  right,  and,  above  all,  to  the  rele- 
gation of  all  religious  thought  to  a  Higher  Power  than  the  state. 

That  which  the  Christians  had  struggled  for,  and  against  native 
prejudice  and  intolerance,  had  come  to  pass.  The  Koran  had 
recognized  a  lofty  place  in  its  theological  history  of  Jesus,  son  of 
Mary,  born  at  "  Beyth'ul  Cahhm" — cattle  market — ofavirginby 
the  breath  of  the  Archangel  Gabriel,  on  the  25th  of  December, 
5584,  under  the  reign  of  Herod,  Rauhh  Ullah—'' Spirit  of  God." 
This  recognition,  once  a  part  of  the  Moslem  faith,  was  renewed  in 
a  practical  canon  of  liberal  polity,  amidst  obloquy,  and  with 
prayerful  thanksgiving. 

Following  this  second  recognition  of  the  Saviour,  Jesus  Christy 
was  the  repeal  of  the  Mohammedan  law  as  to  apostates.  A  Mus- 
sulman was  formerly  condemned  to  death  for  apostasy.  A  Moslem 
woman  was  condemned  to  be  beaten  at  prayer-time,  five  times  a 
day,  for  the  same  crime.     All  that  was  changed. 

The  progress  of  physical  science,  with  its  practical  advance- 
ment, struck  Turkey  as  well  as  other  lands.  The  Turk  was  not 
impervious,  especially  to  mechanical  inventions.  No  better 
artisans  ever  lived  than  those  who  made,  and  yet  make,  Damas- 
cus and  other  Eastern  cities  famous  for  steel,  textiles,  leather,, 
iron  and  wood.  I  have  not  been  unobservant  of  the  atten- 
tion of  the  juvenile  Turks,  who,  when  the  American  launch  in 
which  I  steamed  stopped  at  the  quay,  would  regard,  not  the  per- 
sons on  the  boat,  but  the  movement  of  the  engine  in  the  hold, 
and  of  the  screw  in  the  clear  water.  The  child  was  father  to  the 
man. 

The  Crimean  War  came  not  merely  to  stop  Russia's  aggran- 
dizement or  kill  off  the  canmes  of  Constantinople:  it  stirred  the 
sediments  of  the  empire.  Its  boil  and  bubble  brought  much  scum 
to  the  top.  It  was  not  unlike  our  own  war  in  the  United  States, 
which  brought  the  essentials  of  life  and  liberty.  It  gave  added 
impulse  to  the  schools  and  churches,  Bible-house  and  colporteur- 
age.  After  the  Crimean  War  Robert  College  became  not  only  pos- 
sible ;  it  became  a  tangible  force.  There  it  stands,  a  cynosure 
of  all  eyes,  above  the  Bosporus,  with  its  towers  of  pride  and 
power.  What  influences  enabled  the  Americans  to  obtain  this 
superb  site,  and  the  building  permits,  and  to  begin  the  structure, 
are  not  unknown  to  diplomacy.     Mr.  Robert,  a  New  York  mer- 


PROGItESS  ly  TURKEY. 


295 


chant,  furnished  most  of  the  money,  $200,000,  and  the  name, 
Mr.  Seward  and  Edward  Joy  Morris,  formerly  the  Minister  here, 
and  John  P.  Brown,  dragoman,  inspired,  along  with  occasional 
help  from  tourists  like  General  Grant  and  Admiral  Farragut,  the 
impetus  to  consummate  the  work.  The  dedication  of  the  College 
was  a  polyglotical  arrangement,  for  English,  French,  Turk,  Ameri- 
can and  Bulgarian,  each  and  all,  gave  their  tongue  and  tone  to  the 
celebration  of  the  enterprise. 

Whatever  may  be  the  codes  which  have  prevailed  during  the 
reigns  of  the  thirty-seven  Sultans  ;  whether  from  the  Koran  or 
from  the  "six  revered  books,"  the  Fetvas,  or  from  the  report  of 
decisions  of  the  head  of  Islam,  or  from  the  fifty-five  volumes  of 
Ibrahim  Haleby,  called  the  "Confluence  of  the  Seas,"  because 
it  was  such  a  multitudinous  and  tumultuous  concourse  of  the 
jurisprudence  of  the  empire,  containing  everything  civil,  criminal, 
religious,  military,  economic,  judicial,  sumptuary  and  agrarian — 
one  thing  remains  :  a  sober,  industrious,  kindly  and  forbearing 
mass  of  people,  whose  influences  may  be  on  the  wane  because  of 
a  domestic  canker,  and  whose  rulers  maybe  too  tardy  in  accept- 
ing the  new  conditions  of  an  advanced  era. 

In  spite  of  this  improgressiveness  as  compared  with  Western 
progress,  the  Scriptures  have  been  translated,  and  the  Bible-house 
stands  eminent  in  Stamboul,  with  its  accumulations  and  printing; 
establishments.  Schools,  churches  and  literature  proceed.  No- 
one  need  live  or  die  in  Turkey  without  education  or  such  light  as 
to  the  unseen  existence  as  the  Word  of  God  gives.  The  Catholic 
and  Protestant  missions  have  permeated  and  leavened  the  social 
and  domestic  order.  Fundamental  changes  and  new  laws  have 
come,  along  with  the  steam  ferries,  tunnels  and  street-cars.  The 
Christians  and  Jews  have  better  hopes  of  the  temporary  future 
and  less  fear  as  to  their  faith  in  eternal  life. 

As  an  evidence  of  this  remarkable  progress,  and  from  am 
American  standpoint,  let  me  make  a  resume  of  the  monied,  moral 
and  religious  interests  here  invested.  They  are  the  facts  in  this 
great  Oriental  programme.  They  are  the  results  of  the  American 
missions  in  Turkey. 

The  societies  or  other  chartered  organizations  in  the  United 
States  which  carry  on  missionary  or  educational  operations  in  the 
Turkish  empire  are  the  following  : 

I,  The   American  Board  of   Missions  (Boston),  occupying; 


296  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

European  Turkey,  including  the  part  of  Bulgaria  south  of  the 
Balkans,  and  Asiatic  Turkey  except  Syria. 

2.  The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  (New  York), 
occupying  Syria. 

3.  The  United  Presbyterian  Mission  Board  (New  York), 
occupying  Egypt. 

4.  The  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
(New  York),  occupying  Bulgaria,  excepting  the  portion  which  lies 
south  of  the  Balkans. 

5.  The  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian 
,  Church  (New  York),  occupying  the  territory  of  the  tribe  of  Nusar- 

iyeh  pagans  in  north  Syria. 

6.  The  American  Bible  Society  (New  York),  furnishing  the 
greater  part  of  the  Scriptures  used  in  the  fields  of  the  above 
Society. 

7.  The  trustees  of  the  Constantinople  Bible  House  (New 
York),  corttrolling  the  buildings  used  by  several  of  the  above 
Societies  at  Constantinople. 

8.  The  trustees  of  the  Syrian  Protestant  College  of  Beyrout 
(New  York). 

9.  The  Trustees  of  Robert  College  at  Constantinople  (New 
York). 

10.  The  Baptist  Publication  Society  (New  York),  supporting 
a  missionary  and  his  wife  in  Constantinople. 

1 1 .  The  Church  of  the  Disciples,  supporting  a  missionary  and 
his  wife  in  Constantinople. 

Here  are  some  statistics  of  the  operations  of  these  Societies 
and  associations  within  the  Turkish  empire  : 

Cities,  towns  and  villages  occupied   ...    394 

American  citizens,   men  and   women,    engaged   in  the  work  of  the 

Societies 254 

Turkish  subjects  employed  as  assistants  or  agents  in  various  depart- 
ments          1,049 

Number  of  high  schools  and  colleges 35 

Number  of  girls'  boarding-schools 27 

Number  of  common  schools. .  508 

Pupils  under  instruction  in  the  educational  institutions  of  these  Societies   25,171 
Of  these,  13,750  pupils  are  in  the  schools  of  the  American  Board  in  Euro- 
pean and  Asiatic  Turkey,  6,075  in  those  of  the  Presbyterian  board 
in  Syria,  and  5,106  in  the  schools  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Board 
in  Egypt 


AMERICAN  BENEFA  C  TIONS.  2  9 


Preaching  places  (about) ' 400 

Average  aggregate  attendance  at  each  Sabbath  service 50, (X» 

Organized  churches ...  1 -jg 

Number  of  church  members  10,776 

Average  sale  of  Scriptures  and  parts  of  Scripttires,  per  annum  (copies) . .    50,oc» 
Average  sale  per  annum  of  religious  books,  tracts,  school-books,  etc., 

about  (copies) 100,000 

Number  ot  newspapers  or  other  periodicals  published  by  the  Societies..  13 

Some  of  these  figures  are  under  the  actual  numbers.  The 
increase  in  the  missions  of  the  American  Board  in  Turkey  has 
been  39  per  cent,  in  number  of  pupils,  and  47  per  cent,  in  number  of 
church  members  in  the  last  eight  years. 

The  property  and  business  interests  of  these  Societies  in  the 
Turkish  empire  are  as  follows  :  The  value  of  real  estate,  book- 
manufacturing  machmery  and  material,  book  stock  on  sale,  school 
apparatus,  etc.,  which  belongs  to  these  different  Societies  is  about 
^1,000,000  in  various  parts  of  the  empire. 

The  annual  expenditure  of  the  Societies  within  the  Turkish 
empire  for  the  support  of  schools  and  colleges,  for  rents  and 
repairs  of  buildings,  for  taxes  on  real  estate,  for  manufacture  of 
books  and  newspapers,  and  for  the  salaries  of  the  1,303  persons 
employed  as  above  stated  in  the  various  operations  of  the  Societies, 
is  $360,000. 

This  sum,  annually  sent  from  America  to  Turkey,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  proceeds  of  3  per  cent,  of  American  capital  set 
apart  for  the  purposes  of  these  Societies,  and  amounting  to 
$12,000,000  I 

These  devoted  Americans,  while  they  feel  it  to  be  their  duty 
to  preach  evangelical  Christianity  to  all  who  choose  to  listen,  and 
to  sell  books  to  all  who  will  buy,  do  not  seek  to  gain  adherents  to 
a  sect.  They  would  arouse  our  kind  to  conform  their  lives  to 
good  and  Scriptural  principles.  They  are  not  proselyting  agents 
in  any  other  sense  than  that  which  is  implied  by  the  simple  edu- 
cation of  youth  and  the  public  declaration  of  Christian  truth  to 
the  consciences  of  men. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  there  are  any  divisive  movements 
among  the  Protestants  who  are  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the 
Turkish  empire.  Although  there  may  be  a  multiplicity  of  sects 
and  a  variety  of  councils,  it  is  not  altogether  certain  whether  this 
multiplicity  and  variety  tend  to  utility  and  strength.  The  Baptists 
and  Campbellites  have  as  much  right  in  Turkey  to  make  their 


298  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

own  movement,  and  to  make  baptism  a  capital  question,  as  the 
Presbyterian,  the  Methodist,  or  any  of  the  other  American  foreign 
missions  have  to  propagate  their  own  pecuUar  doctrines  with  their 
own  means.  That  will  not  be  disputed.  But  it  is  certainly  to  be 
regarded  as  a  portion  of  the  past  strength  of  the  Protestant  move- 
ment in  Turkey  that  there  has  been  so  much  unity  among  the 
brethren;  and  when  the  annual  May  meeting  at  Constantinople 
brings  forth  the  active  and  intelligent  missionaries,  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  all  Protestants  are  not  in  one  phalanx  to  meet  the 
combined  attacks  of  the  Greeks  and  Armenians,  who,  more  than 
the  Moslem,  controvert  their  faith  and  persecute  their  follow- 
ers. This  persecution,  especially  by  the  Greek  Church,  or 
its  bishops,  is  one  of  the  anomalies  of  Christian  warfare. 
In  many  regions,  notably  in  the  Trebizond  field,  there  was 
an  attempt  made  to  collect  the  episcopal  dues  of  such 
Greeks  as  became  Protestants.  When  the  protesting  folk 
refused  to  pay,  they  were  imprisoned.  This  led  to  discussion  in 
assemblies.  The  Protestants  were  charged  with  being  children  of 
the  Devil;  and  their  New  Testament  was  denounced  as  apocryphal. 
Out  of  these  controversies  grew  the  old  spirit  of  inquiry.  It  is 
this  spirit  which  not  only  gathers  into  the  Protestant  fold  many 
Greeks  and  Armenians,  but  attracts  the  attention  of  the  intelligent 
Turk.  Whenever  there  is  a  probable  increase  in  the  Protestant 
flock,  an  Armenian  is  found  to  hint  to  the  Turkish  government 
that  there  is  a  lurking  conspiracy.  Then,  as  in  the  aforetime,  the 
conspirators  are  driven  to  private  houses.  Then  the  proprietor  is 
imprisoned.  And  so  out  of  persecution,  as  of  old,  comes  the 
power  which  energizes  this  new  Protestant  crusade  of  the  East. 
One  result  is  that  in  the  collisions  between  the  so-called  Christian 
sects  of  the  East  and  the  American  Protestants,  the  Turks  gain 
information  and  prejudice  dies  out.  In  some  portions  of  Turkey 
the  missionary  is  preferred  in  the  Armenian -Gregorian  churches, 
for  the  old  Armenian  has  his  picture  of  the  saint,  the  same  as  the 
Greek.  He  kisses  the  picture,  but  the  protesting  disciple  in  his 
Church  refuses.  That  drives  him  to  the  Protestant,  The  Turk, 
who  does  not  believe  in  pictures,  takes  note  of  the  nearness  of  the 
relation  between  his  unseen  God  and  that  of  the  Protestant  who 
is  also  an  Iconoclast. 

Now  and  then  we  read  of  a  few  Mahometans  who  are  baptized 
in  the  Protestant  faith.     But  it   is  a  truth  that  very  few  Turks 


AMERICAN  MISSIONS. 


299 


have  ever  gone  into  that  association.  There  are  many  discourage- 
ments connected  with  these  missions.  They  grow  out  of  differ- 
ences and  divisions.  They  are  attended  by  the  withdrawal  of 
members.  It  has  gone  out  that  in  the  matter  of  spiritual  life  the 
cities,  and  especially  Constantinople,  though  set  on  hills,  are  not  a 
shming  light.  If  I  W4ire  to  be  asked  what  is  the  chief  utility  and 
strength  of  the  Protestant  missions  of  Turkey,  which  are  fed  by 
American  money,  I  should  say  the  educational  institutions.  They 
are  not  evangelizing,  but  they  aie  elevating.  They  have  no  trouble 
in  filling  their  halls  and  churches  with  patient  and  attentive  audi- 
tors, and  doubtless  the  streams  are  well  watered  at  these  sources. 
The  effect  of  these  missions  is  seen  especially  in  the  schoolrooms 
of  the  lower  class  of  people,  and  in  the  readiness  with  which  the 
native  girls  sympathize  with  educational  movements.  The  educa- 
tional work  in  Turkey  has  for  its  thinking  head  and  active  mem- 
bers Robert  College  and  the  Home  School  for  girls  at  Scutari. 
Of  these  I  shall  speak  in  another  chapter,  giving  an  account  of 
their  Commencements  in  1886. 

To  be  more  precise,  let  me  say  that  the  American  Foreign 
Missions  for  Turkey  are  divided  into  four  departments.  The 
European-Turkey  Mission  has  as  its  head  the  venerable  Dr. 
Elias  Riggs,  with  many  assistants.  It  is  a  sample  of  many 
others.  It  hks  its  stations,  out-stations,  churches,  missionaries, 
physicians,  female  assistants,  pastors,  preachers,  teachers,  church 
members,  Sabbath-schools  and  pupils.  During  the  Bulgarian 
excitement  of  last  year,  the  'cloud  of  that  war  which,  though 
impending,  was  fringed  with  much  luminous  beauty  by  the 
ministrations  of  these  American  missionaries  to  awaken  new  life 
among  the  Bulgarians  in  their  struggle  for  national  unity.  At 
Constantinople  Monastir,  Phillopopolis  and  Samokov,  our  Ameri- 
can missionary  heroes  and  heroines,  notwithstanding  the  political 
prejudices  of  the  Greeks  and  others,  fought  the  good  fight  of  their 
faith.  The  Western  Turkev  Mission,  which  has  its  headquarters 
at  Constantinople,  and  its  presiding  director,  Dr.  Pettibone, 
assisted  by  Dr.  Henry  O.  Dwight  and  Henry  S.  Barnum,  has 
been  incessantly  at  work.  Nor  should  I  fail  to  mention  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Wood,  who  have  retired  after  fifteen  years  of  service  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  fifty  years  of  honorable  work  as  missionaries, 
followed  by  the  grateful  recollection  of  friends  in  Turkey  and 
America.     They,  like  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Bliss,  are  seeking  a  rest  after 


300  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

the  burden  and  heat  of  their  service.  In  the  Western  Turkey 
Mission,  which  comprehends  Broussa,  Caesarea,  Constantinople, 
Marsovan,  Nicomedia,  Sivas,  Smyrna  and  Trebizond,  the  Ameri- 
can forces  are  well  marshaled  by  those  who  give  spirit  and  health, 
activity  and  success.  Their  labors  may  be  found  recounted 
in  the  reports  made  to  the  American  Board  in  every  recur- 
ring year.  Without  going  into  detail,  I  may  say  that  the  pub- 
lications in  this  department  are  simply  enormous.  There  were 
twenty-one  issued  in  the  past  year  in  the  Armenian  language, 
amounting  to  2,362,900  pages  ;  the  same  number  in  Armeno- 
Turkish,  3,817,600  pages  ;  three  in  Arabo-Turkish,  1,539,000 
pages  ;  twelve  in  Graeco-Turkish,  975,200 — in  all,  fifty-five  publi- 
cations, 8,694,500  pages,  making  an  aggregate  from  the  beginning 
of  394,556,712  pages. 

In  an  old  country  like  that  of  Turkey,  where  old  forms  of 
religious  faith  exert  such  an  influence,  it  requires  an  intense  exer- 
tion, such  as  only  these  types  illustrate,  to  gain  the  trust  and 
confidence  necessary  to  direct  the  pupil  and  the  neophyte  within 
the  path  marked  out  for  their  deliverance. 

Another  department  is  the  Central  Turkey  Mission,  It  com- 
prehends Marash  and  Pantab,  where  Dr.  Trowbridge  is  the 
superior.  This  is  a  most  interesting  mission.  It  is  gaining  in 
influence.  Its  professors  were  educated  in  the  United  States. 
It  has  only  one  limitation  on  its  influence — its  accommodations. 
Its  seminaries  and  hospitals  give  aid  to  the  work  ;  yet  with  all 
these  gentle  and  humanizing  influences,  and  amid  the  Armenian 
community  (so-called  Christian),  the  priests  of  the  Armenian 
religion  were  not  slow  to  see  that  the  Protestant  gospel,  accord- 
ing to  the  American  tenet,  was  sapping  the  foundation  of  their 
authority.  Upon  the  plain  of  Isis,  near  the  very  altars  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  from  which  Cicero  dated  his  letter  to  Atticus, 
near  the  remains  of  the  two  walls,  which  in  the  time  of  Xenophon 
constituted  the  gates  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  upon  the  very  point 
where  archaeology  locates  the  trophies  of  Alexander,  after  the 
battle  of  Isis — here  mobs  of  men  and  bovs  led  by  fanatics,  club  in 
hand,  beat  the  American  people  unmercifully,  and  despoiled  them 
of  their  goods.  Where  could  they  look  for  protection  ?  There 
were  no  American  Consuls  near.  The  Minister  was  remote — at 
the  capital.  When  the  little  flock  of  pastor  Hatcher  and  his  fam- 
ily were  dispersed,  they  found  refuge  in  the  house  of  a  Moslem 


NO  PROSELYTISM. 


301 


Aga.  Thither  the  Armenian  rabble  drove  them  for  asylum. 
This  happened  in  the  very  region  where  St.  Paul  was  born,  and 
where  the  hope  of  Protestant  success  was  most  sanguine. 

And  last,  the  Eastern  Turkey  Mission  :  The  farther  we  ga 
from  the  seat  of  power  on  the  Bosporus,  the  more  difficulties  are 
encountered.  Such  missionaries  as  make  Erzeroum,  Harpoot, 
Mardin,  Van  and  Bitlis  fortresses  of  the  Protestant  crusade, 
have  to  struggle  against  poverty,  native  Christian  hate,  and 
sometimes  Mahometan  persecution,  inspired  by  Greek  and  Arme- 
nian, only  equaled  in  bitterness  in  the  early  days  of  the  Church. 

Taking  the  religion  of  the  Saviour  as  their  standard,  it  would 
naturally  occur  to  the  Christian  men  of  Constantinople  of  diverse 
creeds,  that  they  should  unite  in  some  evangelical  union.  This 
has  been  done.  Many  congregations  up  and  down  the  Bosporus 
have  united.  The  Dutch  Legation  seems  to  be  one  of  the 
nuclei  of  this  unity,  and  its  chapel  is  often  used  for  evangel- 
ical purposes. 

Recognizing  the  fact  that  the  institutions  which  they  establish 
can  only  be  of  permanent  importance  so  far  as  their  roots  are 
planted  in  the  soil  of  Turkey,  the  missionaries  aim  to  make 
every  church  and  every  school  self-supporting  and  independent 
of  foreign  funds.  Where  they  expend  funds  upon  existing 
churches  and  schools,  it  is  as  an  aid  to  the  pastor's  salary,  or  for 
the  construction  of  buildings,  or  such  auxiliary  purposes. 

As  a  rule,  the  missionaries  fully  recognize  the  delicacy  of 
the  work  in  which  they  are  engaged.  They  endeavor,  by  the 
use  of  discretion  and  tact,  to  avoid  offending  the  religious  suscep- 
tibilities of  the  people  among  whom  they  live.  During  a  period 
of  nearly  sixty  years  since  the  first  of  these  missions  was  opened 
in  Turkey,  the  Turkish  government  has  never,  it  is  believed,  pre- 
sented a  single  specific  charge  against  American  missionaries  or 
their  employees  for  illegal  or  offensive  conduct.  If  any  such 
charge  has  ever  been  made,  it  has  never  been  sustained.  Their 
relations  with  the  Turkish  government  have  sometimes  been 
severely  strained,  but  never  broken. 

The  expenditure  of  a  large  sum  annually  within  the  Turkish 
empire  by  these  societies  is  naturally  an  indirect  advantage  to 
the  Imperial  treasury.  Moreover,  the  missions  pay  annually  a 
considerable  sum  directly  into  the  treasury,  in  the  way  of  taxes 
on  real  estate  and  customs  duties  on  material  for  use  in  book 


302 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


manufacture,  and  other  imports.  Furthermore,  high  officials  of 
government  have  repeatedly  borne  testimony  to  the  services  to 
civilization  rendered  by  these  various  Societies.  Nevertheless, 
the  missionaries  are  not  always  treated  with  due  regard  to  their 
rights,  as  engaged  in  lawful  occupations  and  as  the  citizens  of  a 
republic  friendly  to  the  Sultan.  In  such  cases  they  are  forced  to 
appeal  to  the  representative  of  the  United  States  near  the 
Sublime  Porte. 

The  direction  on  which  the  protection  of  the  United  States 
government  is  most  frequently  sought  is  the  book  trade.  The 
Societies  engaged  in  this  business  conform  to  the  law  of  the  land. 
No  book  is  published  or  offered  for  sale  without  authorization  of 
the  Board  of  Censors  at  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction. 
Nevertheless,  officials  of  the  government  sometimes  arrest  the 
agents,  seize  the  books,  or  impose  whimsical  restrictions  upon 
the  right  to  sell  what  the  central  government  has  distinctly 
authorized  to  be  sold.  Such  illegal  interferences  with  the  trade  of 
American  citizens  are  vexatious,  costly  and  very  difficult  to  redress. 

Another  line  on  which  the  protection  of  the  United  States 
government  is  sometimes  required,  is  in  case  of  attempts  on  the 
part  of  Turkish  officials  to  close  the  schools  of  these  Societies. 
Most  of  the  existing  schools  were  established  before  the  existing 
school  law,  and  have  continued  for  many  years  with  the  knowl- 
edge and  tacit  consent  of  the  local  officials.  In  some  places  offi- 
cials have  demanded  the  suspension  of  the  schools,  because  they 
have  not  the  formal  authorization  required  by  the  new  law. 
When  such  authorization  has  been  applied  for,  great  reluctance 
has  been  shown  in  granting  it,  and  once  or  twice  the  application 
has  been  made  an  excuse  for  summarily  closing  the  school.  The 
missionaries  are  perfectly  willing  to  submit  their  schools  to 
government  inspection,  but  they  are  unwilling  to  submit  the 
■question  of  the  existence  of  long-established  schools  to  the 
caprice  of  a^;!  official  who  may  prefer,  without  valid  reason,  to 
withhold  the  required  permit. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  United  States  government  will  defend  the 
missionaries  in  their  claim.  According  to  all  precedent,  these 
schools  have  acquired  the  right  to  exist,  and  the  large  investments 
of  capital,  made  in  good  faith  under  former  laws  of  the  empire, 
should  not  be  put  in  jeopardy  by  the  interpretation  given  to 
more  recent  decrees. 


AMERICAN  PROTECTION  NEEDED.  303 

The  missionaries  are  occasionally  obliged  to  seek  aid  from  the 
Legation,  as  in  cases  of  robbery  and  personal  violence.  Of  course, 
those  whose  business  requires  them  to  travel  do  it  at  their  own 
risk.  But  the  Turkish  government  becomes  responsible  when  it 
uses  its  power  to  protect  the  robbers  who  have  attacked  American 
citizens  on  the  highway,  or  when  it  permits  its  provincial  officials 
to  release  such  criminals  without  punishment,  or  to  refuse  to 
make  the  attempt  to  recover  stolen  property  when  its  whereabouts 
is  known.  Cases  of  such  negligence  or  bad  administration  on 
the  part  of  provincial  officials  have  so  often  occurred  that  it  is  not 
difficult  to  understand  how  the  robbers  are  forming  an  impression 
that  Americans  can  be  robbed  without  risk. 

In  concluding  this  brief  outline  of  this  department  of  Ameri- 
can interests  in  Turkey,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the 
"  missionary  interest"  thus  described  has  a  warm  hold  upon  the 
hearts  of  Americans  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States.  The  sum 
of  $360,000,  contributed  annually  for  these  institutions  in  Turkey 
by  thousands  of  American  citizens,  north,  south,  east  and  west, 
and  of  every  political  party,  represents  the  popular  vote  of  a 
great  constituency  which  has  studied  the  work  of  these  Societies 
and  believes  in  their  benefactions.  The  influence  of  the  various 
Societies  acting  together,  therefore,  is  not  small,  and  will  be  sure 
to  come  to  the  support  of  the  Minister  of  the  United  States, 
who  is  charged  with  the  protection  of  the  legal  rights  of  the  Socie- 
ties in  the  Turkish  empire  in  any  crisis  in  which  he  may  desire 
such  influence  to  be  exerted  at  Washington  or  at  the  Porte. 

Protection,  thus  far,  has  not  been  stinted.  The  recent  troubles 
in  the  Turkish  empire,  by  withdrawing  soldiers  from  Syria  and 
Asia  Minor,  have  lessened  the  protection  to  life  and  property; 
and  Puck  well  pictures  the  hopeless  impotence  of  the  United 
States,  without  a  navy,  in  these  remote  complications  involving 
her  citizens.  But  a  better  day  is  dawning.  The  "  Alliance"  of 
Protestants  is  coming  to  the  aid  of  the  Foreign  Ministers,  who, 
like  the  British,  Swedish,  Dutch  and  American,  have  immense 
and  growing  evangelical  interests  under  their  aegis. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

TURKISH   LANGUAGE    AND    LITERATURE. 

The  Turkish  language  is  not  a  difficult  one  to  learn.  Its 
system  of  orthography  and  pronunciation  is  by  no  means  compli- 
cated. It  has  ten  vowel  sounds.  It  does  not  employ  combinations 
of  two  or  three  consonants  to  represent  a  single  sound,  as  in  other 
languages.  The  written  language  is  not  subject  to  any  standing 
rule  as  to  accent.  Accent  and  quantity  are  not  to  be  confounded 
in  the  Turkish.  Linguists  praise  the  beautiful  characteristics  of 
this  tongue  for  its  melody  and  euphony.  Its  rules  are  a  guide  to 
the  tones  of  all  the  subordinate  and  inflectional  parts  of  words. 
In  its  etymology  there  is  nadefinite  or  indefinite  article.  Its  noun 
knows  no  gender.  It  has  singular  and  plural  numbers,  but  not  pro- 
perly any  inflections  of  case.  It  has,  however,  a  declination  of 
nouns.  It  has  a  preposition  which  follows  the  noun,  and  which 
should  be  called  a /^i-/-position. 

No  one,  in  a  few  paragraphs  like  these,  can  give  an  idea  of 
the  Turkish  grammar.  Its  adjectives,  like  the  English,  are 
invariable,  whether  they  qualify  a  noun,  singular  or  plural.  They 
precede  the  noun.  Even  for  the  degrees  of  comparison  there  is 
no  change  of  termination.  An  adverb  signifying  '■'■  more"  is 
placed  before  the  adjective  to  make  the  comparative,  and  another, 
'*  most,''  for  the  sup-irlative.  An  adverb,  chok,  signifies  tnuch.  It 
is  always  upon  the  Turkish  lip.  We  have,  probably,  the  same 
word  for  the  same  idea  when  we  say  chock-i'^\\  it  means  much- 
full.  The  Irishman  from  Waterford  appreciated  the  word  when 
he  said  that  the  Celt  of  that  country  never  drank  anything,  for  he 
was  ''always  chock-full." 

No  naiion  or  race  which  has  asserted  itself  so  prominently  as 
the  Seljukian  Turk  could  avoid  the  egotism  of  the  personal 
pronoun.  This  they  have  in  various  forms,  as  well  as  the  demon- 
strative, interrogative,  relative  and  indefinite  pronouns. 

It   is  the  verb  which  indicates  the  refinement  of  language. 


"ghit!"  with  the  kavass. 
30s 


306  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

In  Turkish  it  is  simple  and  regular  in  its  formation  and  in  the 
modification  of  its  meanings.  Generally,  every  verb  is  formed  as- 
regularly  as  the  ramifications  of  a  tree.  The  system  has  thirty- 
six  verbs,  twelve  being  affirmative,  twelve  negative,  and  twelve 
impotential.  Six  of  the  twelve  are  active,  and  six  passive.  Of  these 
three  are  simple,  and  three  causative;  and  one  of  each  three 
is  determinate,  one  indeterminate  and  one  reciprocal.  The  original 
verb  has  something  like  the  Greek  root.  It  is  the  stalk  upon 
which  all  the  other  verbs  grow.  The  moods,  tenses,  numbers  and 
persons  are  generally  formed  by  the  regular  addition  of  special 
letters  or  syllables.  The  adjective  even  plays  the  part  of  the 
adverb.  It  qualifies  both  verbs  and  nouns.  All  adverbs  of  place 
and  time  are  merely  the  nouns  used  with  or  without  a  preposition 
affixed.  The  conjunctions  and  interjections  are  quite  unlike  the 
English. 

There  are  many  conveniences  in  the  Turkish  language;  as,  for 
instance,  the  addition  of  the  syllable  '■^ji"  which  indicates  an 
employer,  a  workman,  or  a  man  engaged  in  a  peculiar  work;  as  in 
the  case  of  the  word  shek^r,  which  means  sugar;  the  dealer  in 
sugar  is  simply  a  shekirji.  The  word  yalam  means  a  lie;  but 
yhlhnji  is  a  liar.  By  a  curious  turn  of  speech  the  interrogative 
ru,  which  means  what  ?  when  it  is  neji  means  what  trade  or  occu- 
pation of  the  person.  Sometimes  /  is  changed  into  d;  as,  for 
instance,  the  word  ghit  means  "  go,"  and  the  word  ghidiji  means 
''  a  goer."  There  is  no  more  useful  word  to  a  man  in  Turkey  than. 
"Git."  It  is  useful  in  America  also.  It  is  generally  used  with 
'*  Haidi,  git."  Literally,  "Git  up  and  git !"  Take  this  sentence: 
Al,  kuzum  ;  ish-ta  Hamal  inyengizi  ;  ushakala  beraber  ghit — \ 
Being  translated,  it  means,  "  Here,  good  fellow,  take  your  porter- 
age and  go  with  the  servant."  But,  generally  speaking,  the  word 
ghit  has  a  meanmg  which  trips  on  the  American  tongue  in  Turkey 
with  homely  vehemence.  In  a  city  which  seems  to  be  abandoned 
to  trade,  and  where  there  is  no  way  of  compelling  cleanly  habits, 
and  which  is  only  saved  from  cholera  by  a  strict  quarantine, 
Euxine  breezes,  and  running  water,  and  within  whose  narrow  and 
illy  paved  streets  you  are  liable  at  every  step  to  tumble  over  a 
tawny  cur,  and  where  refuse  heaps  and  foul  spots  make  no  impres- 
sion upon  the  custodians  of  public  health  and  locomotion,  you 
are  often,  in  such  surroundings,  saluted  by  beggars — able-bodied 
beggars — who  ought  to  be  forced  to  sweep  the  city  from  one  end 


BEGGARS— A  NUISANCE. 


307 


to  the  other.  These  filthy  beggars  are  allowed  to  touch  and  evert 
pull  your  garments,  calling  a  halt  on  your  promenade.  But  for 
the  protection  of  the  Kavass,  all  strangers  and  the  Ministers  are 
oftentimes  at  the  mercy  of  these  vagabonds.  Indeed,  as  I  have 
shown  in  another  place,  there  is  a  chartered  fraternity  of  mendi- 
cants, who,  the  more  pestilential  they  look  the  more  audacious 
they  are.  A  licensed  beggarly  ruffian  levies  a  tribute  of  a  piastre 
upon  a  pedestrian.  What  can  the  pedestrian  do  ?  He  can  only 
be  ransomed  from  contagion  by  prompt  payment.  In  these  cases 
the  word  '■'■Ghit !"  has  a  sanitary  and  solacing  signification.  Even 
in  the  wide  streets  of  Pera,  where  tramway  cars  are  drawn  up  in 
the  middle  of  the  streets,  and  while  the  hamal  deposits  his  load 
on  the  narrow  pavement,  and  itinerant  passengers  are  comparing 
notes  in  the  midst  of  these  impediments— and  the  confusion  is 
increased  by  a  dozen  pack-horses  laden  with  sacks  of  charcoal — 
in  such  an  emergency,  what  is  the  poor  pedestrian  to  do  ?  He 
cannot  use  a  revolver.  He  cannot  use  a  cane.  His  only  resource 
is  the  Turkish  word,  "  Ghit."  It  is  effectual,  if  backed  by  the 
sword  of  the  Kavass  and  the  obsolete  pistols  in  his  sash;  for  the 
Turkish  and  other  denizens  of  the  capital  respect  authority, 
even  when  backed  by  the  weakest  sign  of  means  to  enforce  it. 

The  Turkish  language  is  said  to  be  identical  with  the 
Arabic  in  its  alphabet.  It  has,  however,  some  additional  letters. 
Like  most  languages  it  has  many  foreign  words.  The  wonder  is 
that  it  has  not  more,  since  Constantinople  is  polyglot.  It  is  easy 
to  speak,  but  difficult  to  read  it.  The  reason  for  the  former  is 
that  it  is  expressive,  soft  and  musical.  The  reason  for  the  latter 
is  that  the  vowels  are  generally  omitted  in  writing  or  printing,  and 
there  are  no  marks  of  punctuation.  This  is  a  Semitic  peculiarity,. 
I  believe,  as  to  the  vowels.  Thirty-five  years  ago,  when  I  was  in 
Constantinople, there  were  many  scribes  sitting  cross-legged  around 
on  the  corners  of  the  streets  who  did  writing  for  the  passers-by. 
These  professional  characters  are  now  rare.  Almost  every  one 
here  can  write  and  read  now.  In  writmg,  the  characters  run  from 
the  right  to  the  left,  and  rather  diagonally.  They  run  up  more 
obliquely  toward  the  end  of  the  line. 

The  Turk  when  he  writes  takes  a  small  piece  of  paper  in  his 
hand;  and  then,  with  a  little  stick  of  reed,  sharpened  at  the  end,  he 
makes  his  characters  with  great  fluency.  There  is  no  slit  in  this 
reed.     He  does  not  move  the  hand  in  writing;  he  moves  the  paper. 


3o8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

There  are  various  kinds  of  handwriting  in  Turkey,  as  there  was  in 
Egypt  in  early  days.  One  kind  is  applied  to  sacred  litera- 
ture, another  to  official  documents,  and  a  third  to  the  ordinary 
correspondence. 

The  Arab  is  not  a  musical,  though  it  be  a  scientific,  roman- 
tic, eloquent  and  poetic  language.  It  has  harsh,  inharmonious 
sounds.  It  is  high-pitched  and  guttural,  as  compared  with  the 
euphony  of  the  Turkish  tongue.  In  fact,  the  Turk  has  been 
called  a  gentlemanly  man  because  he  speaks  with  a  softened  and 
hushed  enunciation,  but  this  is  by  no  means  his  only  title  to  that 
designation. 

It  is  a  historic  indictment  that  the  Mahometan  Turk  and 
Saracen  was  a  destroyer  of  literature,  and  that  the  great  library  of 
Alexandria,  with  its  works  of  inestimable  value,  was  burned  by 
order  of  the  Mussulman  army.  Is  it  not  well  to  ask  whether  the 
tale  thus  circulated  be  really  true  ?  The  Moslem  writers  are 
unanimous  in  denying  it.  The  unsophisticated  remark  attributed 
to  Omar  the  Caliph,  when  appealed  to  concerning  the  Alexandrian 
library,  is  often  quoted  to  show  the  vandalic  quality  of  the  Maho- 
metan.    It  was  this: 

"  The  contents  of  the  books  are  either  in  conformity  with  the 
Koran,  or  they  are  not.  If  they  are,  the  Koran  is  sufficient 
of  itself.  If  they  are  not,  they  are  pernicious.  Let  them 
burn  I " 

Perhaps  the  hugest  lying  ever  written  to  throw  obloquy  upon 
a  race  or  a  religion,  is  the  allegation  that  the  baths  and  furnaces 
of  Alexandria  were  for  months  fed  with  the  books  of  this  library. 
"Without  proof  of  this  charge  it  must  fail.  It  would  be  enough  to 
say  that  the  Mahometan  always  respected  the  "  Men  of  the 
Book,"  meaning  at  the  same  time,  among  others,  the  men  of 
letters. 

The  American  student  has  not  to  venture  farwithin  the  arcana 
of  Oriental  science  and  mystery,  in  order  to  learn  what  the  Arabic 
mind  has  done  for  civilization  and  advancement.  Dr.  John  Will- 
iam Draper  has  collected  and  analyzed  the  learning  on  this  sub- 
ject Although  he  may  have  variated,  as  some  consider  it,  the 
modes  of  thought  by  which  the  Arabian  mind  treated  the  accumu- 
lations of  fact,  without  the  essential  generalizations  which  make 
philosophy  and  science;  still,  in  regard  to  astronomy  he  shows  us 
who  first  discovered  the  motions  of  the  sun's  apogee,  and  who 


ARABIAN  LITERA  TURE. 


309 


demonstrated  the  third  irregularity  of  our  satellite.  Their  names 
are  lost  in  the  rushing  crowds  who  fill  the  observatory  and  labora- 
tory of  science  and  the  niches  of  the  temple  of  fame.  There  are 
names  like  El  Hazen,  Wefa  and  El  Batini,  that  are  worthy  of  being 
classed  in  the  same  category  with  Copernicus,  Newton,  Priestly 
and  Lavoisier.  It  has  been  said  that  the  Arabian  philosophy 
merely  copied  after  the  Greek  masters,  Plato  and  Aristotle.  If 
this  be  true,  is  it  not  all  the  more  creditable  in  the  Arabians  ? 
Indeed,  without  the  aid  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  the  splendid  com- 
mentaries of  the  Western  mind  in  philosophy,  science  and  religion 
would  be  but  shining  dross  and  useless  inaptitudes. 

It  is  said  that  the  Arabians  have  no  literature  of  their  own, 
that  they  gave  their  mental  as  well  as  physical  energies  to  the  con- 
quest of  sea  and  land,  and  that  they  have  been  destroyers  and  not 
restorers.  To  offset  this  charge,  it  must  be  confessed  that  they 
have  a  wonderful  place  in  the  world's  history,  by  means  of  a  genius 
for  government,  if  not  a  taste  for  art  and  literature.  Why  is  the 
Turkish  pen  a  stubbed  stick  without  a  split  ?  It  must  be  under- 
stood that  the  reed  makes  a  tolerable  pen.  Besides,  it  is  cheaper 
than  our  wooden-holder  pen,  in  a  country  where  the  forests  have 
been  eaten  off  by  the  goats  and  destroyed  by  the  peasantry. 
Although  the  pen  of  the  Turk  has  not  been  as  mighty  as  his 
cimeter,  it  must  be  taken  into  account  that  with  such  a  poor  stick 
of  a  pen  he  has  done  wonderfully  well. 

To  any  one  who  has  read  Sir  Walter  Scott's  "  Robert  of  Paris," 
the  grandiose  style  of  chronicling  the  events  of  the  Greek  empire 
will  provoke  a  smile  ;  and  yet,  long  before  his  day,  such  chroni- 
cles were  the  only  source  of  knowledge  as  to  these  border  lands 
between  the  Occident  and  the  Orient.  There  was  much  nebu- 
lous light  burning  over  the  Danube,  the  Euxine  and  the  Bospo- 
rus. They  were  faint,  flickering  beacons,  to  which  the  Western 
Powers  looked,  and  by  which  they  were  guided  in  giving  encour- 
agement and  help  to  the  East  in  the  struggles  of  the  Greek  and 
the  "  Barbarian."  When  the  Turkish  conquest  came,  there  had 
been  little  of  literature  and  less  of  art  cultivated  by  their  predeces- 
sors. The  Turk  added  nothing  to  the  advancement  of  those  years, 
except  the  art  of  war,  and  something  from  the  fragmentary  poems 
of  the  Arab  and  Persian.  The  Turk  was  a  peasant  and  a 
soldier  ;  and,  I  may  add,  a  ruler.  Before  the  conquest,  Greek 
history  was  an  alternation  of  palatial  assassination  or  monastic 


3  I O  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  V. 

retiracy,  and  a  mass  of  demoniac  intrigue.  The  literary  light 
which,  like  an  aureole,  surrounded  the  Arab  brow  at  Bagdad,  and 
as  far  west  as  Cordova  and  Granada,  and  as  far  east  as  Delhi, 
never  irradiated  the  conquerors  of  Constantinople.  Many  of  the 
Sultans  were  conspicuously  grand  in  their  thoughts  and  deeds 
of  conquest.  They  planted  the  foundations  of  the  empire. 
Their  successors  gave  it  permanence  through  education,  litera- 
ture and  the  arts.  But  most  of  the  amenities  were  limited,  and 
almost  lost  in  the  contamination  of  a  sensuous  faith. 

Suleiman  the  Magnificent  stands  first  among  the  Ottoman 
rulers  ;  but  in  balancing  the  probabilities  as  to  the  advancement 
of  our  race,  there  is  not  very  much  connected  with  the  Turkish 
supremacy  to  show  that  even  he  gave  to  it  any  great  impulse, 
like  that  gained  from  the  Arabian  invasions  along  the  Mediter- 
ranean. 

•The  Turkish  tongue  is  enriched  by  many  Arabic  and  some  Per- 
sian words.  These  came  into  the  language  along  with  the  religious 
dogma.  Besides,  the  terms  of  luxury  and  art  that  belong  to  the 
Orient,  and  which  were  unknown  to  the  Tartar  ancestry  of  the 
Turk,  have  their  place  in  the  Turkish  language.  You  can  hear 
them  dropping  like  bubbling  honey  from  the  mouths  of  the  Turk- 
ish ladies  who  are  shopping  in  the  bazaars,  or  in  the  smooth 
words  of  the  shopkeeper  who  responds.  The  old  tongue  of  the 
Turk  IS  not  unknown  to  many  uncivilized  people,  who  roam  over 
the  plains  of  northern  Asia,  just  as  the  language  of  the  border  of 
Scotland  is  heard  among  the  Norse  descendants  of  Scandinavia. 

It  is  said  that  the  language  is  similar  to  that  of  the  Latin.  In 
its  softness,  yes  ;  but  in  its  copiousness,  no. 

The  Turk  in  his  litigations  has  no  *'  advocate."  He  is  his 
own  attorney  and  speaker.  He  tries  his  own  case.  He  does  his 
own  work  with  his  own  tongue.  He  practices  rules  and  arts  of 
rhetoric  with  grace  and  skill.  His  crescendo,  toward  the  climax, 
complies  with  the  rules  of  Quintilian  and  the  practice  of  Cicero. 

You  may  not  know  the  object  of  a  Turk's  speech  from  his 
proem.  It  is  the  end  that  clinches  the  discourse.  His  con- 
clusion is  the  key  to  his  meaning.  To  listen  to  him  in  the 
bazaar,  as  he  expands  upon  the  glories  of  his  broadcloth  and  silks, 
you  are  at  a  loss  which  to  admire  most,  the  exquisite  broidery 
of  his  phrases  and  praises,  or  the  elegant  texture  of  his  fabrics. 
Yet  there  is  not  so  much  of  the  advocate  as  the  judge  in  his 


"FOUNDA  TIONS''  OF  EDUCA  TION.  3  i  i 

flianner.  He  does  nothing,  not  even  in  the  sale  of  a  chibouque, 
without  dignity.  His  frequent  response  of  *' Yok,"  which  means 
"No,"  advises  you  that  his  mind  is  determinately  made  up. 

In  balancing  these  merits  and  demerits  of  the  Turk,  I  am 
■endeavoring  to  separate  him  from  his  Arabic  friends  and  co- 
religionists, and  to  be  discreet  in  laudation.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
true  that  the  Turkish  people  have  adopted  many  of  the  finer  ele- 
ments of  the  Arabic  character,  if  not  the  literature.  It  is  within 
my  own  personal  knowledge  that  many  of  them,  in  a  half-monastic 
way,  take  to  themselves,  as  other  less  cultured  Turks  take  a  harem, 
the  rare  volumes  of  Arabic  literature,  to  read,  cherish  and  love. 
There  is  such  a  scholar,  with  a  rare  library,  upon  the  eminence 
near  the  American  college.  He  is  devoted  to  his  rare  old  vol- 
umes. Many  of  his  treasures  are  manuscripts  which  record  the 
scientific  triumphs  of  the  Arabian  people. 

Out  of  all  this  has  already  come  a  respectable  literature  in  the 
Turkish  language.  Some  of  it  is  from  other  languages,  but  much  of 
it  is  original.  A  part  is  poetical,  as  nearly  all  Oriental  literature  must 
be.  It  is  historical,  because  there  are  no  such  fields  for  history  as  the 
Balkan  and  Asia  Minor  peninsulas,  Mesopotamia,  Syria  and  Judea. 
As  a  general  thing,  letters,  although  appreciated,  are  not  cultivated 
in  Turkey  to-day.  The  body  of  the  Turkish  people  are  not 
highly  educated,  but  they  are  not  uninstructed.  The  ordinary 
Turk,  however,  is  free  from  vices,  and  the  Turk  who  seeks  pro- 
motion in  the  state  invariably  seeks  an  education  outside  of 
Turkey.  To  a  limited  extent,  those  who  would  expound  the 
Koran,  or  who  would  seek  government  employment,  disdain  to 
be  entirely  ignorant  of  or  aloof  from  the  tlegant  life  of  lettered 
-ease  which  is  led  by  some  of  the  diplomatic  and  other  people  in 
and  around  the  Porte.  The  Turkish  colleges  and  schools  have 
large  funds  for  their  endowment.  In  fact,  there  is  a  minister 
specially  dedicated  to  look  after  all  the  "  fouifdations  "  of  educa- 
tion. It  is  to  be  regretted  that  his  duty  is  mostly  connected  with 
the  foundations  of  the  mosque.  The  studies  are  under  the  guid- 
ance of  the  ulemas.  I  do  not  think  the  literature  taught  by  the' 
ulemas  is  practical.  It  is  rather  the  result  of  metaphysical  sub- 
tlety. It  comes  out  of  the  old  school,  of  which  Aristotle  was  the 
best  teacher,  and  of  which  Scotus  himself  was  the  best  scholar. 
The  rhetoric  and  logic  which  the  Arab  drew  out  of  the  Greek 
manuscripts  in  their  cr}'pts  have  been  applied  to  philosophical 


312  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

questions  of  a  most  simple  and  insignificant  character.  It  has  struck 
others  than  myself  that  the  physical  science,  with  its  enginery,  its 
telescope  and  microscope,  and  its  machines  for  the  transmission 
of  sound  and  words  by  electricity,  are  regarded  by  the  average 
Turk  either  as  miracles  or  as  toys  for  childish  curiosity.  When 
Dr.  Hamlin,  of  Robert  College,  first  introduced  into  the  palace 
the  magnetic  telegraph,  and  demonstrated  how  intelligently 
words  could  be  transmitted  to  a  distance  without  talking,  the 
scene  was  very  diverting,  but  not  more  so  than  the  wonder  over 
new  discoveries  in  our  own  home.  The  curiosity  of  the  Turks  was 
childlike,  but  it  was  the  curiosity  of  those  who  desired  to  learn; 
and  they  have  learned.  In  Turkey  to-day  the  telegraph  is  in  con- 
stant requisition  among  all  classes  of  the  people,  and  at  a  cost 
mfinitely  less  than  that  of  any  other  country  in  the  world.  The 
government  controls  it.  The  effect  of  this  control  is  not  in  the 
direction  of  centralization  of  power. 

There  are  among  Oriental,  and  especially  Armenian,  tales,  a  col- 
lection from  the  East  Indies,  called  the  "  Five  Books,"  as  well  as- 
the  "  Arabian  Nights,"  with  which  we  are  familiar.  They  defy 
scientific  analysis.  They  are  stories  of  Oriental  Cinderellas, 
about  the  Snake  Child,  and  the  Brahmin's  Enchanted  Son,  and 
others.  There  are  stories  from  Albania,  in  which  physical  and 
animated  nature  is  personified,  like  those  of  the  Danish  Andersen. 
These  make  up  abundantly  a  literature  of  the  lower  classes  within 
the  dominion  of  Turkey,  irrespective  of  race. 

In  the  comparative  absence  of  books  and  newspapers  in  Turkey 
in  earlier  times,  the  tombstone  was  considered  a  vehicle  for  the 
communication  of  sentiment.  This  consists  with  the  gravity  of 
Ottoman  character.  As  the  cemetery  was  often  sought  by  prome- 
naders,  picnic  parties,  condoling  acquaintances  and  friends  of  the 
deceased,  there  is  much  obituary  literature  worked  in  upon  the 
stones.  In  the  great  burial-ground  of  Eyoub,  on  the  tomb  of  an 
infant,  it  is  said: 

"  This  is  a  flower  that  has  scarcely  bloomed.  It  is  prematurely 
torn  from  its  stem.  It  is  removed  to  those  bowers  whose  roses 
never  languish.    Its  parents'  tears  will  supply  refreshing  moisture." 

Again,  this  is  written  of  a  young  lady: 

'■'■  The  chilling  blast  of  fate  caused  this  nightingale  to  wing  its. 
course  to  heaven." 

Of  a  lady  who  dies  in  child-birth  it  is  said : 


NE  WSPA  PERS  IN  1 URKE  V.  313 

"Tree  and  fruit  are  both  transported  to  the  gardens  of 
paradise." 

On  a  child's  tomb: 

*'  Here  below  is  but  a  frail  rosebud  ;  the  bitter  wind  of  destiny- 
blew  upon  its  stem." 

Here  is  a  mother's  lament  for  her  daughter: 

"  The  bird  of  my  heart  has  flown  from  my  soul  for  the  gardens 
of  paradise." 

On  a  mother's  tomb  we  read : 

"  Traveler,  I  ask  of  thee  a  prayer;  if  to-day  it  is  needed  for 
myself,  to-morrow  it  will  be  required  for  you." 

The  following  epitaph  is  a  remarkable  specimen  of  literature, 
a/  fresco: 

**  Here  lies  the  man  who  eats  no  onions." 

Was  he  a  Lazarus  or  a  Dives  ?  Onions  were  the  food  of  the 
opulent. 

One  might  write  a  chapter  about  the  newspaper  press  of  this 
capital,  but  it  could  not  be  written  with  much  satisfaction  by 
those  who  believe  in  John  Milton's  "  Plea  for  Unlicensed  Print- 
ing." The  newspaper  in  Constantinople  began  nearly  half  a 
century  ago.  Oscanyan  Effendi,  ex-Consul-General  Ottoman  at 
New  York,  now  a  member  of  the  Press  Club  of  that  city,  and  a 
rare  linguist,  was  its  progenitor.  It  was  called  the  Byzantine 
Advertiser.  It  had  a  native  name,  Aztarur  Bizhntian.  It  strug- 
gled manfully  for  existence,  but  it  could  not  long  survive  the  inclem- 
ency of  the  government  and  the  indifference  of  the  people.  While 
the  Turkish  newspaper  press  still  lacks  the  freedom  which  the 
American,  French  and  English  press  enjoy,  yet  it  has  grown  into 
a  power,  as  the  number  and  variety  of  its  issues  indicate.  There 
are  a  score  of  dailies  and  as  many  weeklies  in  this  capital.  Even 
the  resident  Persians  have  a  Star  Aktar.  These  papers  copy  the 
French  methods.  They  are  all  compelled  to  be  reticent  on  news 
as  well  as  on  public  questions.  The  newspapers  of  Constantinople 
which  circulate  most  among  the  English,  German,  Italian  and 
Levantine  population  are  printed  in  English  and  French  ;  such  as 
the  Levant  Herald  and  the  Oriental  Advertiser.  There  is  a 
French  Journal  de  Constantinople.  The  authoritative  paper  is  the 
Tarik.  The  latter  is  the  organ  of  the  Turkish  government. 
There  is  a  Greek  paper,  the  Neologos — well  named.  There  is  an 
Armenian  and  a  Hebrew  paper;  but  the  most  independent  paper 


3  1 4  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA T  IN  TURKEY. 

of  them  all  is,  perhaps,  the  Levant  Herald.  The  sign  of  its  vitality 
is  that  of  its  constant  overhauling  by  the  censor.  I  am  inclined 
to  believe,  from  my  knowledge  of  this  censorial  performance,  that 
much  of  the  work  is  superserviceably  and  ignorantly  done.  The 
portion  expunged  by  the  censor  is  generally  that  which  is  the 
least  obnoxious  to  the  government  of  the  Porte.  Frequently,  my 
friend  Mr.  Edgar  Whitaker,  of  the  Levant  Herald,  has  had  his 
best  lucubrations  cut  in  whole  or  in  part.  On  such  occasions 
this  little  item  appears: 

Notre  article  politique  d'aujourd'  hut  reste,  sur  la  demande  de 
la  censure,  en  portefeuille. 

No  one  can  rely  upon  any  of  these  papers  for  fresh  news. 
During  the  time  the  Conferences  were  held  in  Constantinople, 
and  of  the  short  war  between  Servia  and  Bulgaria,  we  were  indebted 
to  the  London  papers  for  the  only  particulars.  As  to  any  news 
from  America,  it  was  like  angeie'  visits,  few  and  far  between. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


TURKISH   WIT   AND   HUMOR. 


It  is  commonly  thought  that  the  Turk  has  no  humor.  To  be 
as  cross  as  a  Turk  is  an  apothegm.  The  Turk  is  always  sup- 
posed to  be  as  solemn  as  Pythagoras,  and  as  sedate  as  a  Scotch 
Presbyterian.  If  he  be  allowed  to  have  any  humor,  it  is  regarded 
as  that  of  a  grim  sort,  which  is  more  akin  to  North  Albion  than 
to  Attica.  There  is  some  injustice  done  the  Turk  in  this  matter. 
He  can  fit  his  fancies  for  humorous  ideas,  and  give  them  racy 
application  on  occasions  fit,  but,  unlike  the  Frenchman,  he  is  not 
given  to  the  manufacture  of  jeux  d'  esprit.  Turkish  humor  is 
generally  free  from  the  coarseness  which  belongs  to  the  isolated 
Englishman.  The  national  characteristics  of  gravity  and  reflec- 
tion are  too  strong  to  admit  of  the  irrelevant  hilarity  in  which  the 
Greeks  and  Italians  indulge  ;  but  the  Turk  is  never  backward  in 
being  forward  when  the  least  sparkle  of  humor  is  illustrated. 
Especially  does  he  exercise  his  quiet  and  sedate  quality  of  fun  at 
the  expense  of  foreigners. 

Of  course,  the  Turk  indulges  somewhat  in  masquerade  while 
moving  through  the  mazes  of  diplomacy  at  Pera  ;  but  when  he  is 
by  himself,  he  is  really  fond  of  pleasantries.  He  can  play  off  the 
weaknesses  of  others.  He  makes  prey  of  unsophisticated  foreign- 
ers, with  all  the  soberness  of  a  Rocky  Mountain  stage-driver 
expatiating  to  a  "tenderfoot"  from  the  States.  His  advantage 
consists  in  a  droll  exaggerative  quality,  which,  if  it  do  not  evoke 
a  guffaw,  tickles  like  a  feather.  These  exaggerations  have  expres- 
sion in  tropes  and  figures,  and  frequently  in  piquant  and  pertinent 
stories. 

But  the  Orient  is  rich  in  something  else  besides  humor;  it 
abounds  in  abundant  metaphor,  and  which  is  akin  to  fun.  The 
Turk  is  never  stinted  in  phrases  of  a  superlative  character.  The 
metaphorical  exaggeration  of  the  Orient  reaches  its  climax  in  a 
burst  of  enthusiastic  gratitude,  when  one  of  the  new   Pashas 

3x5 


^  I  6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

acknowledges  an  honor  conferred  upon  him  by  the  Sultan.  One 
of  these  favored  Pashas  exclaims  : 

"  Your  sublime  favor  has  been  as  a  southern  sun-breeze,  even 
to  the  remote  corner  of  my  insignificance  !  Had  I  all  the  various 
voices  of  the  universe  for  pens,  and  the  condensed  stars  of  heaven 
for  a  page  whereon  to  describe  your  bounties,  I  should  still  lack 
both  space  and  means  to  record  them." 

The  exaggerated  expressions  of  the  Orient  are  to  be  accepted 
with  much  allowance.  There  is  no  malice  in  the  big  stories,  and 
no  intention  to  pervert  the  truth  ;  but  from  the  very  constitution 
of  the  language  itself  there  are,  from  the  Arabic,  Hebrew  and 
other  languages,  roots,  from  which  grow  luxuriant  amplificatioa 
and  ramification. 

The  Turkish  or  Oriental  mind  has  not  that  intense,  condensed 
and  expressive  sense  which  French  and  Americans  regard  as  wit. 
Occasionally  in  public  places,  you  may  meet  a  company  of 
players  and  singers,  who,  in  addition  to  other  performances, 
indulge  in  buffoonery.  Sometimes  this  is  grotesque,  but  it  is  not 
funny  to  us,  or  witty  to  any  race.  It  is  often  a  caricature  upon 
the  prevalent  manners. 

The  subject  of  a  favorite  performance,  for  instance,  is  a 
mysterious  beauty — a  princess.  Her  charms,  like  all  Orien- 
tal charms,  are  enhanced  by  the  veil.  The  play  in  which 
she  is  the  heroine  is  a  sort  of  al  fresco  festivity.  It  is  played 
as  Thespis  played — in  the  *' open."  There  are  no  scenic 
aids  except  a  tent,  which  represents  a  harem.  The  spectacle  is 
upon  an  area  of  beaten  ground  under  the  shade  of  trees.  The 
ground  is  covered  with  a  carpet,  upon  which  sit  cross-legged  spec- 
tators. There  is  an  open  shed  for  the  female  portion  of  the  audi- 
ence. The  humorous  characterization  consists  of  some  young  per- 
son smothered  in  a  veil  inside  of  the  tent,  or  harem,  whose  door  is 
open.  Through  the  open  door  the  lady  is  seen,  affecting  the 
languishing  attitude  and  duck-like  waddling  habitual  to  the  ladies 
of  the  East.  The  mimicry  is  well  done.  It  produces  a  piastre's 
worth  of  hilarity.  Inside  of  the  tent,  the  heroine  sits  entranced, 
while  her  lovers  play,  beneath  her  supposed  lattice-window,  the 
gusle — a  sort  of  goose-neck  banjo.  The  suitors  are  as  numerous 
as  those  who  wooed  Penelope.  The  coy  beauty  is  superbly 
rouged  upon  the  cheek,  and  charcoal  gives  additional  darkness  to 
her  eyebrows.    She  cannot  be  wooed  by  any  goose  music;  Oh,  no! 


TURKISH  DRAMA. 


317 


Her  slaves  come  forth  and  pummel  the  suitors  with  cudgels.  This 
"  brings  down  the  house."  In  the  next  scene,  a  funny  old  man 
enters  disguised.  He  it  is  who  is  behind  the  canvas,  per- 
sonating the  adorable  beauty  !  He  sings  in  falsetto  the  most 
tender  airs,  which  delight  the  audience.  Shades  of  Gilbert  and 
Sullivan  !  They  never  struck  notes  like  these  in  their  most 
comic  operas  ;  for  of  all  the  music  which  can  be  caricatured  on  a 
high  pitch  with  a  shrill  whining,  the  airs  of  the  Orient  furnish  the 
climax.  This  mummy  of  an  old  man,  with  his  tender  trills  and 
squeaky  treble,  is,  to  the  suitors,  an  houri;  and  his  song  and  melody 
that  of  paradise.  The  audience  know  all  the  time  that  the  beauty 
is  that  discordant,  ugly  old  man.  In  that  lies  the  raciness  of  the 
performance.  To  the  Turk,  contrast  is  the  essence  of  dramatic 
vivacity;  hence  the  old  man's  amative  words  and  high  pitch  of 
admiration  produce  tumbling  oceanic  swells  of  fun. 

It  may  not  be  generally  understood,  but  it  is  a  fact,  of  which 
I  have  had  some  diplomatic  experience,  that  the  Turkish  language 
is  extremely  susceptible  of  conundrums,  puns  and  double  enten- 
<jres.  A  little  shade  here,  or  a  little  more  color  there,  and  the 
whole  sense  of  a  word  or  sentence  becomes  changed  with  surpris- 
ing facility.  It  is  therefore  easy  to  be  comical  in  Turkish,  since 
the  comic  is  defined  to  mean  a  sudden  jerk  of  the  understanding 
from  one  extreme  to  another.  The  player  is  not  backward  in 
taking  advantage  of  this  trait  of  the  language  in  the  alfresco  per- 
formances. 

When  acting  the  parts  of  lovers — as  in  the  play  to  which  I 
have  referred — they  get  into  all  sorts  of  strange  positions.  Some 
swing  their  bodies,  and  others  caper  about  with  fantastic  exclama- 
tions that  remind  one  of  the  opera  bouff^.  The  lover  has  a 
lantern  on  the  end  of  a  pole  ;  this,  in  his  amorous  agony  and 
awkwardness,  he  pokes  into  all  sorts  of  faces  and  places.  The 
result  is,  a  whack  here,  and  a  kick  there,  and  a  tumble  all  around 
the  stage.  At  last  the  denouement  takes  place.  The  conquering 
hero,  who  is  always  the  tenor,  appears.  To  him  the  beauty 
yields,  with  blushes.  Her  veil  drops,  and  she  responds  in  a  deep 
bass  voice  !  Then  the  chorus  becomes  excite,d.  Beauty  surren- 
ders to  the  Beast,  and  the  play  ends.  The  whole  performance 
is  very  much  like  a  conflict  among  ducks  and  geese. 

In  fact,  such  ornithological  fights  are  not  unknown  in  the 
East.    They  furnish  sportive  recreation.    I  have  often  been  struck 


A  GOOSE-FIGHT  NEAR  AURIANOPLE. 


Mi 


SCENE  FROM  THE  CADI.      CHAPTER  XXVII.,  PAGE  349. 


GOOSE  FIGHTS. 


3^9 


with  the  prominent  part  which  the  goose  plays  in  Oriental  coun- 
tries. In  Montenegro  it  used  to  be  common  for  the  nobility  to 
play  upon  the  banjo  already  referred  to — the  gusle.  It  is  so 
called  from  the  Slavic  word  gusj- — a  goose.  It  comes  from  the 
same  root  as  our  English  word.  The  instrument  is  so  called 
from  the  goose-like  neck.  The  Montenegrins  play  a  variety  of 
tunes  on  this  rude  violin,  although  there  is  but  one  string  drawn 
over  the  bridge.  It  is  played  with  a  bow,  and  by  pressing  the 
strings  with  the  left  hand.  When  thus  evoked  it  has,  for  one 
string,  a  wonderful  number  of  notes  and  variations  of  sounds. 
Its  expression  is  not  exactly  artistic,  but  it  is  truly  pathetic  in 
its  monotony  in  ordinary  hands. 

The  most  conspicuous  part  which  the  goose  plays  in  the  Orient 
is  in  a  fight !  In  some  parts  of  Turkey  in  Europe  the  bird  is 
trained  for  fighting,  and  a  goose-fight  is  looked  upon  with  more 
interest  than  any  cock  fight  ever  was  in  Cuba  or  New  Orleans. 
The  goose  that  has  the  longest  and  strongest  neck  wins  in  the 
duel.  The  fighting  is  done  by  twisting  one  neck  round  the  other. 
A  goose  main,  therefore,  depends  for  its  victory  on  the  main 
strength  of  the  neck. 

The  Ottoman  or  Mahometan  literature,  whether  it  be  written 
or  oral,  often  takes  the  form  of  story  or  parable  with  a  moral. 
In  fact,  local  names  are  associated  more  or  less'  with  some  phase 
of  morality.  Midway  between  Therapia  and  Buyukdere  there  is 
a  beautiful  terrace  overlooking  some  stones,  against  which  the  sea, 
surging  in  from  the  entrance  to  the  Bosporus,  beats  violently. 
I  often  visited  these  stones,  and  endeavored  to  draw  a  sermon 
from  them.  One  of  them  was  formerly  called  Dikjea,  which 
means  the  "Just  Stone."  It  has  its  legend.  Two  merchants 
agree,  before  a  journey  over  the  Euxine,  to  place  what  gold  they 
have  beneath  this  rock.  They  swear  that  should  one  return  before 
the  other,  he  who  first  arrives  will  await  for  the  return  of  the 
other  before  taking  possession*  of  the  money.  One  of  them  is 
intent  upon  breaking  the  engagement.  What  is  the  result? 
The  very  stone  prevents  the  perfidy.  On  looking  for  the  gold 
the  first  who  returns  can  find  the  gold  nowhere.  When  the 
partner  returns,  he  is  informed  of  the  loss  of  the  money,  when 
lo!  the  gold  appears  in  the  very  spot  on  which  it  had  been  depos- 
ited. Here  is  proof,  upon  a  rocky  foundation,  of  a  fidelity  beyond 
that  of  ordinary  brick  and  mortar  bank-vaults. 


320 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  JN  TURKEY. 


If  it  be  true  that  maxims,  stories,  fables  and  parables  are 
typical  of  the  characteristics  of  a  race,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of 
the  honesty  of  the  Turkish  character;  for  all  through  their  legends 
and  traditions,  the  honesty  and  justice  of  the  Ottoman  is 
celebrated. 

Oriental  stories  have  endless  variety.  They  are  often  used 
by  our  Occidental  litterateurs  and  poets  to  give  grace  to  their 
numbers  and  elevation  to  their  ideas.  I  glance  into  an  Ameri- 
can magazine;  I  find  a  story  in  six  verses.  It  is  Oriental,  for  it 
is  about  a  dervish.  It  points  the  moral  in  the  first  verse — it  is 
the  virtue  of  fasting.  But  this  enables  the  devout  to  come 
only  half-way  to  God.  The  second  verse  indicates  prayer;  but 
this  is  not  sufficient ;  neither  are  pilgrimages;  for  God  does  not 
come  to  the  devotee  who  is  only  prayerful  or  a  pilgrim.  The 
third  verse  suggests  alms-giving,  but  this  of  itself  is  not  sufficient. 
The  dervish  becomes  discouraged.  He  toils  along  the  road  with 
his  one  coarse  loaf.  In  the  fifth  verse  he  meets  a  crippled  beg- 
gar; the  cripple  craves  charity  of  the  dervish;  the  loaf  is  given — 
in  God's  name.  Then — then,  the  Mighty  Splendor  fills  the  desolate 
air.  A  light  divine  overflows  from  a  heavenly  place,  and  he  knows 
that  it  is  the  light  of  Allah's  face! 

Take  another  analogue.  It  is  also  about  beggary.  A  cripple 
sits  in  the  city's  gate.  The  grand  folk  pass  through  it,  seeking  a 
sacred  shrine  in  the  forest  near  by.  They  deny  the  beggar  alms. 
His  need  is  sore.  "  We  seek  to  find  out  God,"  is  their  answer  to 
his  petition,  as  they  pass  on  to  the  shrine.  The  beggar  dies  ;  he 
realizes  the  prayer.     He  alone  has  found  out  God! 

A  diligent  searcher  after  the  folk-lore  of  Turkey  could  bring 
forth  many  odd,  not  to  say  funny,  superstitions.  Some  of  them 
have  fun  for  us,  but  not  for  the  Turks.  The  stories  have  their 
roots  in  old  legends  of  infinite  interest,  as  coming  from  the  Orient 
and  associated  with  our  Scriptures.     Let  me  mention  a  few: 

Many  are  connected  with  the  Evil  Eye,  and  the  attempt 
to  exorcise  it  or  prevent  it.  Children  are  especially  guarded 
against  the  Evil  Eye.  A  word  from  the  Koran  is  a  sufficient 
defense,  or  some  beads,  or  a  little  garlic,  or  an  herb  of  some  kind. 
Incense  is  often  used  as  a  precaution  against  this  terrible  Evil 
Eye.  The  Weelees  of  Egypt  and  the  Ghinns  of  Bagdad,  and  other 
evil  spirits,  are  still  as  active  as  they  were  during  t^e  Thousand 
and  One  Nights  in  forming  many  of   the  qualities   of  the  lower 


TURKISH  SUPERS  TITIONS.  3  2 1 

classes  of  Turkey.  Many  people  use  what  is  called  dog-bread  as 
a  charm.  It  is  thus  named  simply  because  little  bits  tied  up  in 
a  handkerchief  passed  over  the  head  of  the  child  are  afterwards 
given  to  the  dogs.  Again,  many  designs  in  a  dress  or  coverlet  are 
slightly  irregular  or  imperfect.  They  are  made  so  for  a  purpose. 
It  is  thus  intended  to  show  that  nothing  but  Allah  can  be  perfect. 
Sometimes  you  will  notice  persons  spitting  very  much  while  in 
conversation  with  you.  This  is  a  superstitious  mode  of  cultivat- 
ing the  salivary  glands  to  protect  the  expectorator  against  the 
Evil  Eye.  The  donkeys  in  the  island  of  Prinkipo  are  always 
decorated  with  blue  beads,  and  so  with  the  horses  and  oxen;  and 
even  the  ugly  buffaloes  have  similar  decoration.  These  adorn- 
ments are  supposed  to  divert,  by  their  attraction,  the  evil  looks  of 
the  envious. 

A  superstition  among  the  Turks  is  that  nothing  should  be 
wasted  that  might  be  used  as  food  for  dogs  or  fish.  Another  is 
that  no  paper  should  be  left  lying  around  loose;  for  non  constat,  but 
that  it  may  bear  the  name  of  Allah.  Oftentimes  a  piece  of 
paper  with  Allah  on  it,  is  swallowed  in  water  b)'  the  sick. 
These  are  Oriental  customs;  and  there  are  a  thousand  more  that 
might  be  picked  up.  In  Moslem  lands  these  customs  have  a 
religious  aspect.  The  visitor  must  beware  not  to  enter  the  house 
for  the  first  time  with  the  right  foot.  He  must  use  certain  days 
that  are  not  unlucky.  The  Sultan,  as  we  have  seen,  observes 
this  custom  in  giving  or  postponing  his  dinners.  The  proper 
time  for  his  hospitalities  depends  on  astrological  calculations; 
hence,  the  first  day  set  may  turn  out  to  be  an  unlucky  one.  We 
may  smile  at  these  superstitions,  but  the  Turk  does  not.  Some- 
times they  are  quite  as  inconvenient  to  him  as  to  others.  It  is 
said  that  the  office  of  Muned-gim  Bashi,  or  astrologer  to  His 
Majesty,  exists,  and  that  it  is  filled  by  an  intelligent  and  eminent 
man.  It  is  his  duty  to  calculate  the  propitiousness  of  times  and 
seasons:  when  should  the  hair  be  cut  or  the  nails  be  pared;  when 
be  doctored  or  go  on  a  trip;  or  when  is  it  best  to  rest.  All  these 
are  ciphered  out  by  the  official  Zadkiel.  It  is  hinted  that  Sir 
Drummond  Wolfe's  mission  about  Egypt  failed  because  the 
times  selected  for  the  negotiations  were  unlucky.  Whatever 
truth  there  may  be  in  these  asseverations  about  astrology — and 
doubtless  they  are  exaggerated — there  is  a  sobriety  regarding 
them  which,  to  the  irreverent  American  mind,  is  related  to  the 


322 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


THE  HIRSUTE  QUEEN  OP  SHEBA.  323 

humorous.  These  superstitions  have  been  carefully  collated  by 
authentic  writers,  and  if  we  should  add  to  them  others  which 
come  down  traditionally,  it  would  only  amplify  what  is  already 
well  known,  and  that  is,  that  the  Orient,  the  land  of  religions,  is 
the  land  of  strange  and  weird  fancies  about  Evil,  and  of  remedies 
supposed  to  be  salutary  and  potential  against  its  influences.  But 
most  of  all,  and  related  to  these  traditions^ are  the  "moralities  " 
which  are  their  companions. 

One  of  the  odd  things  of  the  East  is  the  devotion  paid  to 
csrtain  vegetables  and  certain  trades.  For  instance,  the  onion, 
which  is  not  held  in  high  esteem  by  Western  nation*,  is  called 
by  the  Kurd,  "Your  Excellency."  To  dine  on  the  inside  core  of 
the  onion  is  considered  evidence  of  high  dignity  and  immense 
opulence. 

One  of  the  strangest  of  all  the  Turkish  stories  is  one  current 
about  Solomon  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  The  Turks  have  no 
nebulous  or  indefinite  dramatis  persona;.  They  personify  them 
as  well  as  other  creatures  by  both  name  and  trade.  The  Queen  of 
Sheba' s  name  is  Balkiss.  She  is  the  twenty-second  queen  of 
Yeman,  which  is  a  seaport  on  the  Red  Sea  When  she  calls  on 
Solomon,  she  has  a  wonderful  reputation  for  beauty,  but  there 
is  one  defect  for  which  nothing  can  compensate.  It  is  more 
than  hinted  to  Solomon  that  Her  Majesty's  nether  limbs  are 
covered  with  hair  like  unto  that  of  a  she -ass.  What  did  this 
wisest  of  men  do  in  order  to  settle  this  question  ?  Why,  he 
arranges,  with  the  aid  of  a  mirror,  and  running  water  under  it, 
to  find  out  whether,  as  reputed,  her  ankles  are  hirsute.  When 
Queen  Balkiss  steps  into  the  room  where  the  great  King  Solo- 
mon is  sitting  in  state,  she  raises  her  robe  to  avoid  the  water. 
The  plan  is  a  success. 

Queens  did  not  wear  stockings  until  Elizabeth  of  England 
set  the  fashion.  Sheba's  secret  was  thus  revealed.  But,  like 
most  Oriental  troubles,  a  magical  paste  was  manufactured  by  the 
king's  apothecary,  so  that  the  feet  as  well  as  the  legs  of  the  fair 
Balkiss  become  as  downy  as  the  cheek  of  a  new-born  infant. 

There  are  a  great  many  singular,  if  not  witty,  mottoes  in  the 
Turkish  tongue.  Sometimes  they  are  written,  as  I  have  shown, 
upon  old  gravestones,  and  sometimes  upon  the  tablets  of  the 
baths.     In  the  latter  place  there  is  one  which  says,  appositely: 

"  Do  not  be   quite   so   shy  of  taking  off  your  clothes;  for 


^24  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  LV  TURKEY. 

what  is  life  if  not  a  place  where  each  one  must  drop  the  robe 
of  flesh  !  " 

******* 

Here  is  another: 

**  Send  provisions  to  be  placed  in  your  tomb,  for  no  one  will 
take  you  in  after  you  are  dead." 

In  the  old  cemetery  below  our  hotel  in  Constantinople,  there 
is  a  tomb  of  a  man  who  had  been  buried  by  the  falling  of  a  house. 
He  makes  his  own  epitaph: 

*'  I  wag  walking  leisurely,  when,  good  Lord  !  what  evil  befell 
me  I  I  was  reduced  to  ashes,  and  beneath  this  stone  you  will 
find  them." 

******* 

There  is  a  wine,  almost  a  syrup,  made  by  the  Arab  from  the 
date.  It  is  a  favorite  drink  of  the  Bagdad  gourmand.  A  story  is 
told  of  it: 

A  famous  Caliph  loves  this  brew.  In  one  of  his  wanderings, 
he  enters  the  cabin  of  a  peasant.  The  peasant  is  so  pleased  with 
the  Caliph  that  he  produces,  not  merely  milk,  but  a  bottle  of  the 
date-wine.     The  Caliph  takes  a  drink,  and  says  to  the  peasant: 

"  Do  you  know  who  I  am  ? " 

"No,"  replies  the  peasant, 

"  I  am  a  eunuch  of  the  court,"  says  the  Mahdi,  or  Caliph. 

"Allah!  bless  you  !"  replies  the  peasant. 

Then  the  Caliph  takes  another  pull  at  the  magic  bottle.  After 
a  slight  hesitation  he  again  asks : 

"  Do  you  know  who  I  am  ? " 

"Yes,"  responds  the  peasant,  "  you  are  the  guardian  of  the 
harem." 

"  No,"  says  the  Caliph,  "  I  am  one  of  the  Mahdi's  generals." 

The  peasant  is  duly  respectful.  The  Caliph  takes  a  third 
draught  with  a  delicate  hurrah. 

'*  Do  you  know  who  I  am  now  ?  I  am  the  Commander  of  the 
Faithful,"  says  he,  with  a  magnificent  Oriental  hiccough. 

The  peasant  makes  no  remark  at  this  third  drink.  He  takes 
the  bottle  away.     The  Caliph  demands  it  back. 

**  Not  a  drop!"  says  the  peasant.  "  When  you  first  drank,  you 
were  a  eunuch  at  court;  when  you  drank  next,  you  were  a  gen- 
eral; and  at  the  third  drink  you  were  the  Commander  of  the 


3^ 


->  2 6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN"  TURKE  Y. 

Faithful  !  One  more  drink,  old  fellow!  and  you  will  be  the 
Prophet  himself." 

He  drew  the  line  on  Mahomet. 

Beyond  all  doubt,  the  triple  walls  of  Constantinople,  with  their 
towers  and  massiveness,  are  the  most  interesting  of  her  monu- 
ments. They  are  in  excellent  preservation,  especially  on  the  two 
sides  of  the  triangle  bordering  the  Sea  of  Marmora  and  the 
Golden  Horn.  Upon  the  land  side  of  the  triangle,  running  five 
miles  across,  from  the  Seven  Towers  on  the  Sea  to  the  port  of 
Haidanhaissar,  the  walls  are  a  perpetual  scene  of  wonder.  They^ 
are  majestic.  They  are  everywhere  overspread  with  luxuriant 
and  wandering  foliage  In  the  old  dry  moat  there  are  gardens 
and  trees,  the  terebinth,  cypress,  sycamore  and  other  species. 
You  want  to  walk  thither  and  ponder,  properly  to  investigate  these 
walls.  You  should  read  up  their  remarkable  defensive  history. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  now  to  describe  them,  or  to  dwell  upon  them,, 
except  to  recall  one  little  story  which  has  all  the  moral  fragrance 
of  the  Orient : 

One  day,  in  the  year  a.  d.  549,  Justinian,  the  emperor,  is 
making  progress  across  the  city.  He  loses  from  his  crown  its 
most  splendid  jewel.  It  is  a  diamond  of  twenty-five  carats.  It  is  a 
great  loss.  No  search  discovers  it  until  after  nine  hundred  years 
of  remarkable  vicissitudes.  Then  the  diamond  again  gives  its 
light  to  the  sun.  It  is  found  amid  the  rubbish  of  the  wall  by  a 
little  shepherd-boy  while  attending  his  goats.  He  uses  it  in  some 
game  with  his  playmates.  The  boy's  father  sees  it.  He  ob- 
serves its  beauty.  He  obtains  a  hearing  from  the  Sultan,. 
Mahomed  II.,  the  Conqueror.  The  father  is  made  Chief  Shep- 
herd in  return  for  the  imperial  jewel.  The  story  runs  that  the 
child  is  brought  up  and  educated  at  the  expense  of  the  Sultan. 
The  diamond  is  known  as  the  shepherd's  stone.  It  is  among 
the  rare  gems  of  the  treasury  in  the  Porte.  It  has  another  fatality 
not  so  felicitous: 

In  the  time  of  another  Sultan  this  gem  is  sent  to  a  jeweler  ta 
be  reset.  The  jeweler  is  an  Armenian  of  great  skill.  He  is 
exceedingly  solicitous,  too  careful  perhaps,  in  his  work.  His  hand 
is  tremulous,  and  it  slips!  Voila!  he  observes  a  crack  in  the 
jewel!  He  falls  back  and  dies,  for  he  has  not  sufficient  sight  to 
see  that  it  is  only  a  hair  from  his  eyebrow  which  has  fallen  upoa 
the  diamond. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

STORIES   OF   THE   EAST — THEIR    MORALITIES. 

There  is  a  moral  flavor  and  natural  justice  pervading  most 
of  the  Eastern  tales.  Endeavoring  to  collect  such  of  them  as 
have  not  hitherto  seen  print,  I  place,  as  among  the  best,  the 
followmg  : 

The  story  is  told  of  a  Sultan — whether  in  Egypt  or  Turkey,  I 
cannot  tell — who,  calling  all  his  Ministers  together,  directed  that 
each  one  should  come  fully  robed.  They  came,  clad  in  their  rich- 
est Persian  and  cashmere  shawls  and  garments.  When  this  cab- 
inet meeting  was  over,  the  Ministers  retired  in  the  order  of  their 
rank.  As  each  guest  retired,  he  was  conducted  to  a  chamber  and 
stripped  of  his  magnificent  robe  of  state.  The  despoiled  garments 
were  ultimately  returned  to  the  Ministers — for  a  consideration. 
This  was  one  of  the  ancient  modes  of  replenishing  an  exhausted 
exchequer.  No  doubt  some  of  the  ministerial  wealth  had  been 
acquired  by  a  stripping  process  from  the  people.  The  Sultan's 
mode  was  retributive.  It  tended  to  a  decrease  of  vanity,  and  it 
was  a  tax  on  luxuries. 

Turkey  is  not  without  its  reformers,  but  even  the  best  of  them, 
Midhat  Pasha,   was  the  hero  of  the  following  narrative  : 

When  he  was  Governor  at  Rustchuk,  on  the  Danube,  he  made 
many  enemies.  A  band  of  these  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to  assassi- 
nate him.  They  went  to  Rustchuk,  and  were  followed  by  one  of 
Midhat' s  Wallachian  spies.  This  spy  informed  the  Pasha  of  the 
plot.  When  the  assassins  arrive  at  Rustchuk  they  are  arrested. 
Being  brought  before  the  Pasha,  they  at  first  deny,  but  at  length 
admit,  that  they  have  been  commissioned  to  kill  him.  He 
asks  them  : 

"  How  much  were  you  to  be  paid  ?" 

They  answer  :  "  Twenty-five  thousand  piastres." 

"  What !"  replied  Midhat,  "  is  my  life  held  so  cheap  ?  If  you 
will  kill  the  man  who  sent  you,  I  will  give  you  double  that  sum." 


328  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

The  would-be  assassins  willingly  consent  to  the  more  liberal 
offer.  They  are  paid  twenty-five  thousand  piastres  down.  They 
are  requested  to  return  for  the  balance  as  soon  as  they  should 
despatch  their  former  employer.  They  soon  after  return,  with 
sufficient  evidence  that  they  had  performed  their  contract.  They 
demand  the  other  twenty-five  thousand  piastres.  They  are  asked  : 

"  Have  you  indeed  killed  your  first  employer  ?" 

They  admit  the  deed,  and  produce  the  evidence  of  it. 

"  Then,"  says  the  noble  reformer  to  his  retainers,  "  these  men 
have  committed  murder.     Hang  them  !  " 

Both  assassins  are  at  once  strangled. 

It  seems,  from  this  story,  that  Midhat  was  engaged  in  the 
strangling  business  before  the  fall  of  Abdul  Aziz. 

******* 

Many  stories  are  told  of  Turkish  generals  who  manage  bodies 
of  men  with  great  cunning,  as  well  as  cruelty.  One  is  told  of  a 
Bey,  whose  underlings  revolt  at  his  cruelty.  He  cajoles  them 
with  promises,  and  they  return  to  his  palace,  bringing  with  them 
their  purses.  Around  him  are  the  officers  and  Kavasses,  whom 
self-interest  has  attached  to  him.  The  moneys  which  he  had 
taken  from  the  revolters  are  conveniently  near  his  grasp  from  the 
divan  on  which  he  is  seated.     He  tells  them  : 

"  If  you  will  divide  yourselves  into  two  parties  and  fight 
against  each  other,  I  will  graciously  pardon  the  victorious  party 
and  present  them  with  all  the  moneys  and  permit  them  to  depart; 
but  if  you  do  not  agree  to  this  proposal  I  will  kill  you  all." 

They  consent  to  these  conditions,  since  they  can  do  nothing 
else.  It  is  Hobson's  choice.  Half  their  number  are  soon  welter- 
ing in  blood.  Then  the  conquerors  claim  the  reward.  But  the 
Bey  has  his  loyal  officers  around  him.  He  commands  them  again 
to  divide,  and  to  fight  against  each  other.  They  know  their  fate 
in  case  they  fail  to  fight.  Being  in  the  power  of  the  Bey,  they 
fight  until  only  one  of  their  number  remains.  The  Bey  kindly 
orders  him  to  approach,  commends  his  valor,  tenders  the  prom- 
ised gold,  and  with  a  grim  smile  makes  a  sign.  The  head  of  the 
young  man  rolls  at  the  tyrant's  feet.  This  is  one  of  the  dramatic 
stories  which  used  to  be  told,  by  which  a  reputation  of  cruelty  was 
established  for  the  Turk  throughout  Europe  two  hundred  years  ago. 
******* 

In  former  times,  more  than  at  present,  the  Sultans  of  Turkey 


THE  BUFFOON  AND  THE  SULTAN. 


329 


had  in  their  court,  dwarfs  and  buffoons.  These  were  allowed 
more  liberty  than  any  one  else  in  the  empire.  Sultan  Ahmet  the 
Second  had  a  buffoon  who  had  a  wide  reputation  for  his  skill  in 
repartee.  The  Sultan  and  his  officials  endeavored  m  vain  to  em- 
barrass him  with  intricate  questions.  He  was  always  on  his 
guard,  however.     He  smiled  whenever  they  tried  to  confound  him. 

One  day  the  Sultan  said  to  this  buffoon  : 

"  I  want  you  to  commit  an  offense,  and  find  a  reason  to  excuse 
it  that  will  be  more  reprehensible  than  the  offense  itself." 

'*  Very  well,  your  Majesty,"  said  he,  "  I  will  serve  you  rightly." 

Two  hours  later  the  Sultan  went  into  his  garden  to  take  a  walk. 
He  was  accompanied  by  his  followers,  the  buffoon  being  of  the 
number.  After  many  turns  in  the  garden,  the  buffoon  found 
occasion  to  be  near  the  Sultan,  and,  all  at  once,  gave  His  Majesty 
a  severe  pinch  on  his  side.     The  Sultan  turned  upon  him  and  said  : 

"You  wretched  creature  !  ^ou  deserve  to  be  hanged.  You 
shall  swing  for  this  presently." 

He  calls  for  the  executioner.  The  buffoon,  without  losing  his 
presence  of  mind,  says  : 

"  Just  as  it  pleases  your  Majesty.  I  am  your  slave;  dispose 
of  me  at  any  time  ;  but  the  act  which  you  resent  so  much  is  a 
mistake.    I  pinched  you,  thinking  it  was  the  Sultana — your  wife." 

The  Sultan  thereupon  recollects  his  curious  proposition.  He 
acknowledges  that  the  excuse  for  the  offense  is  far  worse  than  the 
offense  itself.  He  countermands  his  order  to  the  executioner, 
and  resolves  to  make  no  more  foolish  propositions  to  the  buffoon. 

There  is  always  a  moral,  in  the  form  of  a  maxim,  to  these 

stories.     In  this  latter  case  it  is  this  :     "  If  you  care  to  have  peace 

in  this  world,  do  not  give  confidence  to  ignoramuses  or  idiots.  Either 

from  their  hand  or  from  their  tongue,  some  evil  never  fails  to  come  /" 

******* 

The  reports,  generally  oral,  of  cases  before  the  Oriental 
judges,  or  cadis,  have  a  quaint  sense  of  humor. 

I  have  the  record  of  an  old  trial  before  a  cadi :  It  is  the 
exceptional  case  of  a  hot-headed  young  Turk  who  was  found 
intoxicated.  After  the  case  had  been  heard  by  the  cadi,  a  com- 
promise was  proposed  and  accepted.  Everybody  is  relieved. 
The  foreign  parties  present  are  not  a  little  astonished  at  the 
mode  which  the  released  Turk  took  to  show  his  delight.  Select- 
ing with  care,  a  particular  hair  in  the  whiskers  of  his  adversary, 


330 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


who  had  prosecuted  the  case,  he  gives  it  a  sudden  jerk,  drags 
it  out,  and  assures  his  opponent  that  he  is  his  best  friend  !  The 
prosecutor — a  Frank — rubs  his  cheek,  accepts  the  comical  com- 
promise, and  is  rejoiced  afterward  to  learn  that  the  peculiarity 
of  the  action  is  considered  in  Turkey  as  a  mark  of  great  con- 
descension and  amity. 

The  moral  is — that  upon  a  hair  compromises  depend.  Maxima 

e  minimis  suspendens. 

******* 

While  on  a  diversion,  two  friends,  Mustapha  and  Shemsi, 
become  tipsy.  They  start  for  home.  As  they  are  going 
through  the  streets  of  Pera,  ready  for  any  adventure,  Mustapha 
notices  a  big  Janizary  going  along,  who  wears  an  enormous 
turban  like  some  of  those  pictured  in  this  volume.  The  Janizary 
has  a  wide,  fat  neck.  It  is  all  exposed.  Mustapha  takes  a  fancy 
to  him,  and  says  to  his  boon  comji^nion : 

"  I  have  a  good  mind  to  slap,  with  the  flat  of  my  hand,  the  nape 
of  the  neck  of  that  jolly  old  Janizary." 

All  the  efforts  of  Shemsi  to  prevent  him  from  so  doing  are 
useless.     Shemsi  reasons  with  Mustapha: 

"  You  are  going  to  do  a  very  risky  thing.  The  least  that  may 
happen  to  you  will  be  endless  trouble." 

"No,"  said  Mustapha,"!  feel  like  doing  it.  How  can  I 
resist  my  feeling?" 

Then  he  runs  after  the  Janizary  and  gives  him  an  immense 
resounding  slap  on  the  neck.  The  Janizary  is  astounded  and 
indignant.  He  is  terrified,  too,  all  at  once.  He  hesitates,  not 
knowing  what  course  to  take  to  resent  the  indignity  to  his  person 
and  office.  He  is  especially  puzzled,  as  Mustapha  keeps  on 
laughing  like  a  fool.  One  moment  of  reflection  is  sufiicient,  how- 
ever, for  the  Janizary.  He  draws  out  his  yataghan  and  pursues 
the  tipsy  fellow.  Shemsi  intervenes.  He  begs  the  Janizary  to  spare 
his  friend.  He  pleads  first  the  irresistible  impulse,  and  next  that 
Mustapha  is  insane.  Finally  he  succeeds  in  persuading  the  Jani- 
zary to  refer  the  matter  to  the  court  of  the  cadi. 

They  all  go  together  to  the  cadi.  The  defendant  confesses 
the  assault.  The  cadi  takes  down  his  code,  and  after  a  long, 
solemn  search  he  pronounces  a  decision.     It  is  this: 

That  the  defendant  shall  pay  to  the  Janizary  two  paras  (about 
fifty  cents),  m  full  reparation  for  the  insult  and  injury. 


CRAZY  DIVERSIONS. 


331 


The  Janizary  feels  his  blood  running  up  to  his  eyes.  He 
addresses  the  cadi: 

"  Is  this  the  law,  your  honor  ?    Are  you  not  mistaken  ?  " 

'♦  No,"  says  the  cadi,  "  there  is  no  doubt  of  it." 

♦'  But,"  says  the  Janizary,  "  read  it  again.  There  must  be  some 
mistake." 

"Know  ye  not,  sir,"  says  the  cadi,  •*  that  whatever  comes  out 
of  the  cadi's  mouth  is  undebatable;  because  the  law  I  am  giving 
you  is  the  law  of  Allah  !  " 

"Yes,"  replies  the  Janizary;  "but,  O  cadi  !  I  hear  that  the 
least  finger-cut  done  in  accordance  with  the  sacred  law  does  not 
ache  ;  while  m  this  case  my  neck  doth  ache,  and  I  would  like  to 
see  the  law." 

"  Here  is  the  law,"  remarks  the  cadi,  showing  the  book. 

While  the  cadi  is  bending  over  his  volume  to  show  the  law  to 
the  Janizary,  the  latter,  under  the  pretext  of  reading  it,  approaches 
the  cadi.  He  administers  to  the  learned  judge  a  sound  whack  on 
the  nape  of  his  neck. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  this  ? "  shrieks  the  cadi. 

"  It  means,"  says  the  Janizary,  "  that,  it  being  the  sacred  law — 
the  will  of  Allah — I  want  you  to  be  the  recipient,  according  to 
law,  of  the  two  paras  in  which  you  mulct  my  assailant." 

The  cadi  has  no  more  to  say.  He  is  estopped.  He  abides 
by  his  own  construction  of  the  law. 

******* 

I  can  hardly  call  it  a  Diversion  ;  but  a  singular  adventure  hap- 
pened at  the  Legation  during  one  day  in  mid-summer.  The 
Legation  building  is  situated  on  the  Rue  Petit  Champs.  While 
looking  over  some  despatches  one  morning,  a  card  is  sent  up,  in 
the  latest  style  of  pasteboard.  On  it  was  the  name  of  a  Turkish 
gentleman.  I  cannot  recall  his  name,  but  he  was  an  Effendi, 
if  not  a  Bey.  He  enters  with  a  distinguished  air.  He  is  invited 
to  be  seated.  He  is  admirably  dressed.  His  toilette  has  an 
elegance  that  shames  the  personnel  of  the  Legation,  and  the  ordi- 
nary or  even  the  extraordinary  Turk  who  affects  the  European 
costume.  He  desires  to  know  from  me,  in  French,  if  I  speak 
Turkish.  I  tell  him  that  I  do  not.  He  then  begins  in  French 
with  the  greatest  calmness  ;  but  the  glazed  and  wild  eye,  or  some- 
thing, leads  me  to  suspect  before  he  talks  long  that  he  is  distrait. 
I  send  to  the  chamber  of  the  dragoman  ;  I  ask  him  to  translate 


332 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


for  me  from  the  Turkish  into  the  English  in  a  quick  way.  I 
remark  to  the  visitor  with  much  suavity  : 

"You  desire  to  see  the  American  Minister?" 

He  replies  :  "  Yes,  Excellency  " — the  common  appellation  of 
all  Ministers,  whether  '*  excellent "  or  not 

**  I  have  been  to  the  English  Legation;  I  craved  its  protec- 
tion, but  I  have  failed.  I  now  desire  the  protection  of  the  great 
republic  of  America,  which  never  fails  to  be  just  to  the  unfortu- 
nate." 

I  bow  politely  to  the  compliment.     He  resumes  : 

"I  am  a  man  of  property,  unmarried,  and  have  been  living  at 
the  Hotel  d'Angleterre,  but  for  the  summer  I  have  moved  from 
that  hotel  to  the  Hotel  Bellevue,  at  Buyukdere.  While  at  the 
Hotel  d'Angleterre,  I  was  constantly  pursued  by  persons  who 
desired  to  take  my  property  and  my  life." 

His  eyes  shine  with  a  wild,  demoniacal  lustre,  so  that  I  look 
about  me  anxiously  for  the  Kavass,  with  his  unloaded  silver-han- 
dled pistols,  and  the  capouju,  with  his  big  spoon.  They  are  looking 
in  on  the  scene  with  Ottomanic  gravity. 

"  When  I  went  to  the  Hotel  Bellevue,"  resumes  the  visitor. 
"  I  was  still  pursued,  and  by  the  same  parties  !  I  am  pursued 
for  another  reason  than  simply  to  get  my  property  ;  I  am  the  son 
of  the  highest  personage  in  the  Ottoman  empire.  T  am  the  next 
inheritor  of  the  throne  of  Suleiman  and  other  Sultans.  I  am  a 
descendant  lineally  of  the  race  of  Mahomet.  I  am  the  Caliph 
of  the  Mussulmans  and  the  Ruler  of  the  people  !  " 

He  did  not  become  violent.  He  was  singularly  and  trem- 
ulously apprehensive  of  death  from  the  pursuit  of  his  enemies. 
The  dragoman  was  disposed,  at  first,  as  I  thought,  to  smile 
ironically  ;  but  I  gave  him  the  hint,  and  we  both  commiserated, 
in  two  or  three  languages,  the  unfortunate  situation  of  this  heir 
to  the  throne.  We  lamented  the  impotency  of  the  United  States 
to  protect  a  Turkish  subject,  even  though  that  subject  had  royal 
blood  in  his  veins.  We  remitted  him  to  that  palpable  law  of  the 
Koran,  which  shields  the  faithful  in  all  the  emergencies  of  this 
present  life  and  makes  his  future  beatific. 

The  Mahometan  generally  respects  the  beard.  This  man  had 
none.  His  face  was  smoothly  shaven.  His  eyes  had  an  unnatural 
brightness  in  them.  His  cheeks  were  ruddy  with  health,  and  he 
seemed   in  every  respect   sane.     After  the  interview  ended,  he 


** SUNSET"  I.V  THE  EAST.  333 

thanked  us  politely  for  our  sympathy  and  departed.     He  never* 
returned. 

It  is  nothing  new  for  our  citizens  abroad  to  become  crazed 
about  some  apparent  lack  of  sympathetic  action  on  the  part  of 
their  Government.  I  read  the  other  day  of  an  American  making 
a  raid  with  a  pistol  through  the  State  Department  at  Washington, 
because  our  Consul  at  Lisbon  had  received  his  salary  as  a  circus 
performer.  As  he  was  unable  to  collect  his  salary  from  the  cir- 
cus manager,  he  had  appealed  to  the  Consul,  who  had  received  it. 
This  lunatical  incident  has  been  accounted  for.  Owing  to  the 
peculiarity  of  his  performance  in  the  circus,  which  consisted  m 
placing  a  paving-stone  on  his  head,while  another  gentleman  struck 
it  with  a  sledge  hammer,  the  claimant  had  become  embarrassed. 
Perhaps  the  other  gentleman,  in  one  of  his  blows,  struck  too  low  ! 

If  such  incidents  occur  in  the  Legations  of  the  Occident,  how 
much  more  frequently  are  they  likely  to  happen  in  the  Orient, 
whither  the  stragglers  of  all  lands  venture  ! 

I  cast  the  veil  of  reticence  over  many  of  these  cases.  It  is  a 
wise  provision  of  the  Turkish  Foreign  Office  to  have  a  mute  act 
as  messenger.  It  was  a  comfort  to  me,  on  one  occasion,  to  know 
that  no  one  but  a  mute  could  see,  not  hear  or  talk  of,  my  embar- 
rassments in  the  anteroom  of  the  Porte.  A  little  backsheesh 
makes  of  him  a  silent  and  cautious  friend.  At  one  particular 
time,  when  much  depended  upon  my  entrance  to  the  chamber  of 
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  the  mute  in  charge  of  the  ante- 
room came  out  to  see  me.  With  wild,  acrobatic  gestures,  and 
such  inarticulate  noises  as  Dr.  Johnson  made  over  his  tea,  this 
silent  servant  of  the  Porte  indicated  that  I  was  expected.  He 
did  more.  He  made  his  salutations — not  as  a  Giaour  or  Parsee, 
to  the  rising  sun — but  to  the  western  orb  of  day.  This,  to  me, 
was  a  puzzle  until  the  Dragoman,  Mr.  Gargiulo,  explained  its 
meaning.  How  this  mute  knew  me  and  my  twm  dc  plume,  I 
never  could  learn.  He  had  a  sign  for  all  the  Ministers.  The 
English  Minister  he  indicated  by  a  motion  over  his  cheek — 
plainly  signifying  mutton-chop  whiskers;  the  Russian  Minister, 
by  a  shake,  as  if  the  Russian  bear  and  Arctic  frost  had  chilled 
him.  When  he  referred  to  the  American  Minister,  he  pointed  to 
the  glorious  West — evidently  meaning  "  Sunset " — my  pet  name, 
and  that  of  our  launch. 

It  seemed  to  me  at  first,  upon  going  abroad,  that  diplomacy 


->  -» 4.  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

'ought  to  be  a  happy  and  peaceful  means  of  furthering  all 
the  gentle  interests  of  mankind.  Was  it  not  the  guardian  of 
commerce,  the  pioneer  of  science,  the  messenger  of  peace,  the 
destroyer  of  discord,  the  instructor  of  nations,  and  the  angel  of 
good-will  to  men  ?  In  many  ways,  the  well-being  of  mankind 
might  be  more  or  less  enhanced  by  an  honest  and  vigilant  diplo- 
matic service.  But  perhaps  the  most  feather-headed  and  callow 
geniuses  whom  we  love  to  weep  over  upon  our  star  are  those 
diplomats  who,  with  a  small  range  of  intellect  and  a  limited  rank 
in  the  service,  undertake  to  direct  the  world  in  its  career  of 
advancement. 


■\ 

hodja's  picture. 
(This  likeness  is  taken  from  a  Turkish  journal.") 


A  curious  history  might  be  written  of  the  frivolous  quarrels 
of  diplomats,  both  ot  ambassadors  and  ambassadresses,  who  have 
had  their  Diversions  abroad.  I  must  reserve  that  history  for 
another  occasion. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  publishing  to  the  Western  world  a  few 
Turkish  fables.  They  introduce  the  famous  Narr-ed-din  Hodja. 
He  is  an  imaginary  person  ;  not  a  Sawney  or  a  Joe  Miller,  but  the 
embodiment  of  that  Turkish  humanity  which  suits  the  humorous 
Ottoman  sensibility.  He  holds  the  same  rank  with  the  Turks  as 
.^sop  with  the  Greeks.  It  is  a  fictitious  name,  under  which  a 
large  number  of  anecdotes  have  been  collected  and  compiled. 


THE  HOD  J  A. 


335 


Narr-ed-din  Hodja,  as  the  title  (Hodja)  implies,  is  supposed  to 
be  a  man  learned  in  religion.  He  is  the  representative  and 
exemplar  ot  Turkish  humor,  pure  and  simple.  He  is  represented 
as  living  at  Bagdad.  All  the  surroundings  attached  to  his  anec- 
dotes are  Turkish.  He  is  not  supposed,  like  yEsop,  to  have 
written  them  himself,  but  he  is  simply  connected,  supposititiously, 
with  humorous  sayings  and  doings.     He  is  the  Mrs.  Harris  of 


HODJA  WITHOUT  HIS  LATCH-KEY. 


the  Ottoman  Sarah  Gamp.  He  is  clever,  homely  and  deep  ; 
but  more  often  he  is  the  victim,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing : 

One  night,  before  retiring  to  rest,  Narr-ed-din  says  to  his  wife: 
"If  it  rain  to-morrow,  I   shall  go  to  my  field.     If  it  do  not 
rain,  I  shall  go  to  my  vineyard." 

"  Say,  if  it  please  God,  Hodja,"  suggests  his  wife. 


-^  ^6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

'•Whether  it  please  God  or  not,"  replies  the  Hodja,  "I  shall 
go  to  one  or  the  other." 

**  Hodja,"  says  his  wife,  "say,  if  it  please  God." 
"Nothing  of  the  kind,"  says  Narr-ed-din;  **  I  shall  go." 
Next  day  it  is  not  raining,  and  the  Hodja  starts  to  go  to 
his  vineyard.  He  has  not  gone  far,  however,  before  he  is  stopped 
by  the  king's  troopers.  They  compel  him  to  work  all  day,  to 
repair  the  roads.  It  is  quite  late  at  night  when  he  is  set  free. 
By  the  time  he  arrives  at  his  house,  every  one  is  fast  asleep.  He 
knocks  at  the  door.  His  wife,  putting  her  head  out  of  the  window, 
asks  who  it  is. 

"Wife, "replied  Narr-ed-din  Hodja,  "  if  it  please  God,  it  is  I." 
The  moral  which  this  tale  teaches  is  exquisite  for  its  suggestive- 
ness  of  the  necessity  of  dependence  upon  the  Divine  and  not  upon  the 
selfish  human  will. 


When  the  Hodja  made  up  his  mind  to  marry,  his  neighbors 
came  to  him  and  told  him  that  if  he  married,  his  "  wife  would 
turn  his  house  upside  down." 

"  Very  well,"  says  he,   "I  will  take  care  of  that." 

A  few  days  after,  he  began  building  his  house.  Instead  of 
beginning  at  the  foundation,  he  surprises  his  neighbors  by  pre- 
paring the  tiles  for  the  roof.  The  neighbors  come  again  and 
inquire  of  the  Hodja  : 

"  What  are  you  doing?" 

"  I  am  building  my  house,"  he  responds. 

"  But,"  they  reply,  "you  cannot  build  a  house,  starting  from 
the  roof." 

"  Yes,"  says  the  Hodja,  "  but  did  I  not  tell  you  I  am  going 
to  marry  ?" 

"  What  then,"  say  the  anxious  neighbors,  fearing  he  had  gone 
clean  daft. 

"What  then?  Did  you  not  tell  me  that  if  I  married,  my 
wife  would  turn  my  house  upside  down  ?  Now,  I  build  it  so  that 
when  she  turns  it  upside  down,  it  will  be  right-side  up.  If  what 
you  say  to  me  be  true,  I  -advise  you  to  follow  my  plan  toward 
your  wives.  As  they  never  agree  with  you,  give  them  the  oppo- 
site of  what  you  wish,  and  you  will  always  have  your  own 
wiir." 


THE HODJA' S  PRACTICAL  WIT.  -^n 

The  moral  whereof  is  :    that  often  by  indirection  and  tacking- 
we  bring  the  ship  into  port. 


The  Hodja  having  built  his  house  to  his  own  satisfaction  and 
that  of  everybody  else — offers  it  for  sale.  He  makes  a  bargain, 
but  asks  of  the  purchaser,  as  a  favor,  to  be  allowed  to  drive  a  nail 
on  the  wall  of  one  of  the  rooms  ;  the  nail  to  be  his  own  property. 
This  is  granted. 

The  buyer  is  soon  established  in  the  house.  Shortly  after  mid- 
night, the  owner  hears  a  knock  at  his  outer  door.  He  descends 
to  inquire  : 

"Who  is  there?" 

"  It  is  I,"  says  the  Hodja;  "  I  wish  to  tie  a  string  on  my  nail." 
Two  or  three  days  pass,  when  again  the  knock  is  heard  about  the 
same  hour.     Again  the  demand  is  made  : 

"What  is  wanting?" 

The  answer  comes,  "  I  pray  you,  good  friend,  I  should  like  to 
untie  that  string  from  my  property."  This  performance  being 
repeated  several  times,  compels  the  purchaser  to  abandon  his 
purchase  for  a  song. 

The  moral  of  which  is  :  to  make  sure  of  the  character  of  tlie 
vender,  7vhen  you  become  the  vendee. 


The  Hodja  was  considered  the  most  learned  man  in  his  town. 
Every  one  called  on  him  for  information  and  advice.  One  day  a 
number  of  people  called,  and  demanded  of  him  a  reply  to  this 
question  : 

"When,  O  Hodja  !    will  be  the  end  of  the  world?" 

"  Oh  !  "  says  he,  "ask  me  something  difficult.  That  is  very 
easy  to  answer.  When  my  wife  dies,  it  will  be  the  end  of  half  of 
tne  world  ;  when  I  die,  then  the  whole  world  will  end." 

Moral  by  Sir  Boyle  Roche  :  Single  misfortunes  never  come 
alone,  and  the  greatest  possible  misfortune  is  followed  by  one 
greater. 


Another  story  is  told  of  the  Hodja  :  He  used  to  teach  in  the 
parish  school.     He    had    taught  his    pupils  that,   whenever   he 


338.  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

happened  to  sneeze,  they  should  all  stand  up,  and,  clapping  their 
hands  together,  should  cry  out  : 

"  God  grant  you  long  life,  Hodja  ! " 

This  the  pupils  regularly  did  whenever  the  Hodja  sneezed. 
One  day  the  bucket  gets  loose  and  falls  into  the  well  of  the 
schoolhouse.  As  the  pupils  are  afraid  to  go  down  into  the  well 
to  fetch  up  the  bucket,  Narr-ed-din  Hodja  undertakes  the  task. 

He  accordingly  strips,  and  tying  a  rope  round  his  waist, 
asks  his  pupils  to  lower  him  carefully  into  the  well,  and  pull 
him  up  again  when  he  gives  the  signal.  The  Hodja  goes  down, 
and  having  caught  the  bucket,  shouts  out  to  his  pupils  to  pull 
him  up  again.  This  they  do.  The  Hodja  is  nearly  out  of  the 
well,  when  he  suddenly  sneezes  !  Upon  this,  his  pupils  immedi- 
ately let  go  the  rope,  begin  to  knock  their  hands  together,  and 
shout  down  the  well  : 

"  God  grant  you  long  life,  Hodja  !  " 

But  the  poor  Hodja  tumbles  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  well 
with  a  tremendous  crash,  breaking  his  head  and  several  of  his 
bones. 

The  moral  of  this  story  is — too  neat  for  explication. 


One  day  Narr-ed-din  Hodja  is  too  lazy  to  preach  his  usual 
sermon  at  the  mosque.  He  simply  addresses  himself  to  his  con- 
gregation, saying  : 

'*  Of  course  ye  know,  oh,  faithful  Musslumans,  what  I  am 
going  to  say  to  you  ? " 

As  the  Hodja  stops,  evidently  waiting  for  an  answer,  the 
congregation  cry  out  with  one  voice  : 

"  No,  Hodja  Effendi,  we  do  not  know." 

"  Then,  if  you  do  not  know,  I  have  nothing  to  say  to  you," 
replies  the  Hodja,  and  immediately  leaves  the  pulpit. 

Next  day  he  again  addresses  his  congregation,  saying  : 

"  Know  ye,  oh,  faithful  Mussulmans,  what  I  am  going  to  say 
to  you  ?' ' 

Fearing  that  if,  as  on  the  previous  day,  they  say  "No,"  the 
Hodja  would  leave  them  agam  without  a  sermon,  the  congrega- 
tion this  time,  replies  : 

"Yes,  Hodja,  we  do  know." 

"  Then  if  you  do  know  what  I  am  going  to  say,"  quietly  says 


i 


THE  HODJA'S  donkey  ON  HIS  VEXACITV. 
339 


340  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

the  Hodja,  "  of  course,  there  is  no  need  of  my  saying  it.  He 
again  steps  down  from  the  pulpit,  to  the  consternation  of  the  con- 
gregation. 

On  the  third  day,  the  Hodja  again  puts  the  question  : 

"  Know  ye,  oh  faithful  Mussulmans,  what  I  am  going  to  say 
to  you  ? " 

The  congregation,  determined  not  to  be  disappointed  again^ 
take  counsel  among  themselves  on  the  question.  Accordingly- 
some  of  them  reply  : 

"  No,  Hodja,   we  do  not  know,"  while  others  cry  : 

"Yes,  Hodja,  we  do  know." 

"  Very  well,  then,"  says  the  Hodja,  "as  there  are  some  of 
you  who  do  know,  and  others  who  do  not  know,  what  I  was  going 
to  say,  let  those  who  do  know,  tell  it  to  those  that  do  not  know;" 
and  he  quickly  descends  from  the  pulpit. 

The  moral  of  this  story  is  not  always  in  the  mind  of  the  clergy. 
It  is  this  : 

If  you  can  find  nothing  worth  saying,  do  not  trespass  on  the  con- 
gregation by  trying  to  say  it. 

******* 

The  Hodja  borrows  from  a  friend  a  large  copper  vessel,  in 
which  to  do  his  washing.  A  few  days  afterward,  the  vessel  is 
returned  clean,  washed  and  polished.  Inside  of  it  is  another  but 
much  smriller  copper  vessel. 

"  What  is  this,  Hodja?"  asks  his  friend;  "I  lend  you  one 
vessel  and  you  bring  me  back  two  !  " 

"  It  is  very  curious,"  says  the  Hodja.  "  It  appears  that  your 
vessel  is  with  child  when  you  lend  it  to  me.  While  in  my  pos- 
session it  must  have  given  birth  to  this  baby  vessel.  Of  course 
both  belong  equally  to  you." 

"  Oh  !  thank  you,  good  Hodja,"  says  the  man,  laughing,  and 
without  more  parley  agrees  to  receive  back  both  vessels. 

Some  time  after  this,  the  Hodja  again  applies  for  the  loan  of 
the  large  vessel — the  mother  vessel,  as  he  describes  it.  The 
demand  is  readily  granted.  Before  leaving,  the  Hodja  inquires 
after  the  health  of  the  "  baby  vessel."  He  expresses  his  pleasure 
at  hearing  that  it  is  doing  extremely  well. 

A  week,  then  a  month  elapses,  buc  no  Hodja  appears  to  bring 
back  the  borrowed  vessel.  The  proprietor  at  length,  losing 
patience,  goes  himself  to  obtam  it. 


THE  HODJA  AS  A  DOMESTIC  PERSOxV.  341 

•'  Very  sorry,"  says  the  Hodja,  "  but  your  copper  vessel  is 
dead." 

"  Dead,  Hodja  ! "  cries  the  other  in  surprise;  **  what  do  you 
mean  ? " 

"Just  what  I  say,"  replies  Narr-ed-din  Hodja;  "your  vessel 
is  dead." 

"  Nonsense,  Hodja  !'  says  the  man — irritated  at  the  Hodja's 
quiet  manner;  "  how  can  a  copper  vessel  die  ?  " 

'*  Read  up  your  natural  history,  my  good  friend,"  answers  the 
imperturbable  Hodja,"  puffing  quietly  at  his  long  pipe,  "and 
you  will  see  that  everything  that  gives  birth  to  a  child  must  inevi- 
tably succumb  in  due  course  to  the  fate  of  all  mortals.  You 
were  willing  enough  to  believe  that  your  vessel  had  given  birth  to 
a  'baby  vessel;'  I  do  not  see,  therefore,  why  you  should  now 
doubt  my  word  as  to  its  being  dead." 

Although  the  Hodja  could  prevaricate  in  speech,  and  appro- 
priate to  himself  his  neighbor's  chattels,  he  nevertheless  teaches 
in  this  fable  that  it  is  not  wise  to  take  unfair  advantage  of 
your  neighbor. 

The  biter  will  sometimes  get  bitten. 

******* 

A  mendicant  knocks  at  the  Hodja's  door. 

"  What  do  you  want,  my  friend  ?"  asks  the  Hodja,  putting  his 
head  out  of  an  upper  floor  window. 

*'  Come  down,  Hodja  Effendi,  and  I  will  tell  you,"  replies  the 
mendicant. 

The  Hodja  obeys,  and  coming  down  to  the  door,  asks  again 
of  the  man  what  is  wanted. 

"Alms,"  is  the  answer. 

"  Oh!  very  well,"  said  the  Hodja,  **  come  with  me  up-stairs." 

Leading  the  way,  the  Hodja  conducts  the  man  to  the  top- 
most floor  of  his  house.  Arrived  there,  he  turns  round  and 
remarks  : 

"  I  am  very  much  distressed,  my  good  friend,  but  I  have  no 
alms  to  give  you." 

"  Why  did  you  not  say  so  down  below  ?  "  iqfluires  the  man 
angrily. 

"Why  did  you  not  tell  me  what  you  wanted  when  I  asked  you 
from  the  window  ?  Did  you  not  make  me  come  down  to  the 
door?"  retorts  the  Hodja. 


342  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

The  moral  whereof  is  : 

Be  polite  and  considerate  when  you  beg  favors. 


A  friend  calls  on  Narr-ed-din  Hodja  to  borrow  his  donkey. 

"  Very  sorry,"  says  the  Hodja,  who  does  not  want  to  lend  the 
animal,  "  but  the  donkey  is  not  here  ;  I  have  hired  him  out  for 
the  day." 

Unfortunately,  just  at  thatmoment  the  donkey  begins  to  bray 
loudly,  thus  giving  the  direct  lie  to  the  Hodja. 

"  How  is  this,  Hodja  ? "  says  his  friend;  "  you  say  the  donkey 
is  away,  and  here  he  is  braying  in  the  stable  !" 

The  Hodja,  nothing  daunted,  replies  in  a  grave  manner  : 

"  My  dear  sir,  please  do  not  demean  yourself  so  low  as  to 
believe  the  donkey  rather  than  myself — a  fellow-man  and  a  ven- 
erable Hodja  with  a  long  gray  beard." 

The  moral  of  the  last  fable  some  people  never  will  perceive. 
It  is  this: 

An  ass  will  always  reveal  himself  by  some  inappropriate  re- 
mark.  Asses  should  be  seldom  seen,  and  never  heard.  TJie  wise 
man  hideth  his  ass  when  the  borrower  cometh  around. 


The  story-tellers  of  the  East  are  a  literary  guild  of  their  own. 
Their  practice  is  as  old  as  Homer.  Most  of  their  tales,  as  I  have 
shown,  have  a  moral.  In  the  early  training  of  the  child,  by  its 
nurse  or  tutor,  wonderful  stories  are  told  to  the  children.  Some 
of  these  tales  are  at  the  root  of  that  education  which  is  necessary 
to  form  the  character  of  a  true  believer.  As  an  instance,  the 
child  is  taught  not  to  be  afraid  of  death  ;  not  to  be  astonished  at 
anything,  no  matter  how  wonderful ;  and  not  to  say  in  conversa- 
tion anything  but  what  is  necessary  to  promote  its  own  interest. 
All  this  is  given  to  the  children  in  allegoric  stories.  I  will  under- 
take to  give  here  some  of  these  stories. 

We  have  often  been  told  of  the  justice  of  Solomon,  as  to  the 
two  babies  whg  were  brought  before  him.  There  is  a  better  case 
of  that  before  a  cadi  in  Egypt.  A  pair  of  women  come  before 
him.  They  complain  that  one  of  his  Kavasses  had  seized  a  cup  of 
milk  without  payment,  and  had  swallowed  it.  The  man  is  recog- 
nized.    When  the  cadi  is  through  with  the  case,  he  adjudges 


THE  KAVASS  AND  THE  MILK. 


343 


th:it  the  accused  shall  be  ripped  open.  The  moral  is  in  the 
ripping  : 

Per  curiam:  If  milk  be  found  in  the  stomach  of  the  Kavass  the 
plaintiffs  shall  receive  their  five  paras,  the  price  of  the  milk;  but  if 
tliere  be  tw  milk,  they  shall  be  ripped  up  in  turn,  for  accusing  one  of 
the  houselwld  unjustly." 

The  Kavass  is  ripped;  a  little  milk  is  found  in  him,  and  the 
women  receive  their  money. 

I  desire  to  place  upon  record  the  fact  that  at  no  time  in  the 
history  of  the  American  Legation  was  my  Kavass  ever  so  wanting 
in  milk  as  to  cheat  the  milk-woman.  He  is  a  Moslem,  and  has 
been  trained  in  the  moralities  of  the  story. 

■i^  if.  If.  if  %  if.  if. 

There  was  a  man  who,  in  despair  on  account  of  his  pover- 
ty, decides  to  commit  suicide.  He  procures  a  rope  ,and  goes  to 
the  top  of  a  mountain  to  hang  himself  on  a  tree.  When  he  is 
near  the  tree  he  finds  the  Devil  waiting  for  him.  The  Devil  asks  : 

"  Why  do  you  want  to  die  ? " 

The  man,  whose  name  is  Ezek,  answers: 

"  I  have  nothing  to  live  upon;  I  am  tired  of  life." 

"  Why?"  says  the  Devil;  "  do  not  do  anything  of  the  kind;  1 
will  give  you  the  means  of  making  money." 

"What  means  ?"  answered  Ezek. 

"  Now  look  here,"  says  the  Devil  ;  "  I  am  going  to  transform 
myself  into  a  donkey.  You  will  mount  the  donkey  and  go  to  the 
city.  You  will  pass  through  the  main  street.  When  you  get 
near  the  house  of  Ahmed  Bey,  you  will  make  your  donkey  go  as 
fast  as  possible.  Ahmed  is  a  great  amateur  of  fast-running  don- 
keys. He  will  call  you  in  ;  but  do  not  stop  !  Go  on  !  Larrup  your 
donkey.  Be  sure  Ahmed  will  find  you,  and  then,  make  your 
bargain." 

Ezek  mounts  the  donkey.  When  he  comes  near  the  house  of 
Ahmed,  he  lets  the  bridle  loose.  The  donkey  starts  with  a  dash. 
Ahmed,  seeing  the  donkey,  knocks  on  the  glass  of  the  window. 
He  opens  the  window  and  shouts  to  Ezek.  It  is  of  no  use.  Ezek 
will  not  stop.  Then,  in  a  great  hurry,  Ahmed  calls  for  his  serv- 
ants. He  orders  them  to  rush  after  Ezek,  and  bring  him  forth- 
with, with  his  donkey.  The  servants  give  chase,  and  with  the  great- 
est effort  Ezek  is  brought  back.     He  is  asked  : 

**  Will  you  part  with  your  donkey  ?" 


344  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

He  replies  :  **  I  do  not  want  to  sell  the  donkey." 

Ahmed  then  treats  him  more  graciously,  and  asks  him  what 
he  would  sell  his  donkey  for. 

Ezek  says  :  "  I  have  no  intention  of  selling." 

Ahmed  offers  him  $300.  Ezek  refuses.  $500 ;  he  says 
**Yok!"  $1,000;  still  no.  Finally,  the  bargain  is  conclud- 
ed for  $2,000.  Ezek  receives  his  money  and  delivers  the 
donkey. 

One  may  imagine  the  care  that  the  Bey  would  take  of  such  a 
precious  donkey,  which  cost  him  such  a  price.  He  arranges  a 
separate  place  in  his  stable  for  the  donkey.  He  buys  a  new  sad- 
dle and  bridle,  and  as  there  is  in  the  courtyard  of  his  house  a 
fountain,  he  himself  insists  upon  taking  the  donkey  every  day 
to  the  fountain.  He  does  so  for  several  days,  opening  the 
spout,  filling  the  basin,  and  allowing  the  donkey  to  drink  freely. 
One  day,  Ahmed  is  holding  the  bridle  in  front  of  the  fountain 
and  the  donkey  is  drinking.  All  at  once,  the  donkey  slips  into 
the  spout,  leaving  Ahmed  Bey  with  the  bridle  in  his  hands.  At 
first,  Ahmed  is  astounded. 

"  Can  I  believe  my  senses  !"  he  exclaims.  Yes  ;  the  donkey 
shows  him  his  two  ears  sticking  out  from  the  spout  !  The  ears 
are  in  motion.  The  poor  Bey  would  call  for  help,  but  he  is  voice- 
less. After  many  efforts  he  screams  out  ;  the  servants  appear. 
He  relates  what  has  happened.  While  he  is  telling  his  story,  the 
donkey  still  wags  its  ears,  but  only  to  the  Bey. 

"Why,  master,"  say  the  servants,  "it  must  be  a  mistake. 
How  can  a  donkey  go  through  such  a  small  spout  as  this  ?" 

"  Why,"  says  the  Bey,  "  there  it  is,  moving  its  ears;  look  !  look  ! 
look!" 

"  Oh,  what  a  pjty  !  "  say  the  servants.   "  Our  master  is  crazy." 

Then  they  take  the  Bey  into  the  hous'e,  hoping  to  quiet  him. 
It  is  useless.  He  tells  his  story  to  everybody,  and  in  the  most 
emphatic  way.  Finally,  it  is  decided  to  place  him  in  an  insane 
asylum. 

When  he  is  taken  out  of  his  house  he  has  to  pass  before  the 
fountain.  He  looks  on  the  spout.  He  notices  the  ears  of  the 
donkey.  They  are  still  moving.  He  cannot  resist.  He  screams 
out : 

"  There  it  is,  still  !     I  see  its  ears  !  " 

When  he  is  at  the  asylum,  his  friends  go  to  see  him.     They 


EZEK  AND  THE  DEVIL 


345 


ask  for  his  story.  This  he  repeats.  Then  the  friends  conclude 
that  he  is  still  crazy. 

But  after  a  few  days  Ahmed  thinks  about  his  condition.  He 
makes  up  his  mind  to  get  out  of  the  asylum.  So  he  changes  his 
policy,  and  when  a  friend  asks  him: 

**  How  did  that  donkey  manage  to  slip  through  the  spout," 
he  answers: 

"  Now,  my  friend,  how  can  you  imagine  such  nonsense  !  Can 
a  donkey  go  through  a  fountain  sjx)ut?  " 

By  giving  this  answer  he  is  freed.  He  goes  home;  but  as 
soon  as  he  enters  the  court  of  his  house,  lo!  the  donkey  shows  its 
ears  again.  Ahmed  sighs,  but  is  careful  not  to  say  anything.  Had 
he  spoken,  he  would  have  been  returned  to  the  asylum. 

There  is  a  moral  to  this,  as  to  all  Oriental  tales.  It  shews 
that  when  a  man  makes  a  statement  which  may  militate  against 
him,  he  must  afterward  change  it,  with  such  skill  as  to  turn  it  in 
his  favor. 

As  the  analogue,  fable  or  parable  is  a  favorite  mode  of  teach- 
ing in  the  East,  I  relate  the  foregoing;  but  truth  is  still  a  better 
teacher.     A  true  story,  therefore,  I  will   now  deliver  : 

For  some  twenty-five  years  the  Turkish  government  has  been 
doing  its  best  to  have  roads  built  in  Asia  Minor,  and,  although 
the  people  in  the  interior  have  been  at  work  all  this  time,  not 
one  road  has  been  completed.  There  was  a  Governor-General  of 
Castamouni  some  fourteen  years  ago.  He  was  a  good  Turkish 
scholar.  As  soon  as  he  reached  Tueboli,  a  seaport  on  the  Black 
Sea,  he  forwarded  a  telegram  to  Constantinople  as  follows  : 

"The  roads  from  Castamouni  to  Tueboh  are  finished.  I 
have  come  over  them  with  my  carriage." 

The  Governor-General  comes  from  the  latter  town  in  his  car- 
riage. There  is  general  praise  in  the  papers  and  in  official  quar- 
ters. Has  he  not  finished  the  road  ?  When  he  arrives  at  Constan- 
tinople he  is  received  with  great  honor.  Some  time  later  it  is 
found  that  there  is  no  road  between  the  two  places  except  the 
original  pathway.  In  examining  carefully  the  telegram,  it  is 
found  that  the  expressions  used  in  it  meant  with  his  carriage,  not 
necessarily  in  his  carriage.  The  Pasha  did  not  lie.  Those  who 
read  the  telegram  did  not  understand  it;  that  was  all. 

There  is  a  way  of  writing  in  the  Turkish  language  which  is 
very  elastic.    The  Turks  are  masters  of  this  style.    Their  children 


346  DIVERSIONS  CF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


TURKISH  LITERARY  STYLE. 


\\7 


are  taught  in  this  style  early.  There  are  a  great  many  Turkish 
scholars  among  the  Christians.  Some  of  these  manage  the 
language  quite  well,  but  never  better  than  the  Turks.  Any  docu- 
ment written  by  a  Christian,  no  matter  how  well  written,  the  Turk 
detects  its  source  immediately.  It  lacks  the  Ottoman  elasticity. 
And  yet  there  are  few  nations  who  seem  to  give  out  really  fewer 
ambiguous  voices  than  the  Ottoman. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


AMONG   THE   CADIS — MAHOMETAN    JUSTICE — HUMOROUS   ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS. 


A   MODERN   CADI. 


The  police  administration  of  the  present  day  in  Constantinople 
is  very  unlike  that  of  the  past.  Look  upon  the  picture  of  the 
ancient  cadi,  and  compare  him  with  the  judicial  personages  in  the 

348 


349 


3 50  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IlSf  TURKE  Y. 

companion  sketch.     The  difference  in  costume  is  not  greater  than 
in  the  code  that  they  administer. 

No  longer  in  Pera  or  in  Stamboul  doss  the  judge  sit  turbaned 
and  cross-legged  to  administer  to  offenders  his  own  will  as  the  law. 
The  police  business  is  modeled  upon  that  of  Paris,  and  the  tribu- 
nals have  the  same  mode  of  procedure.  Barring  the  red  fez  cap 
which  the  police  justices  wear,  and  an  occasional  cigarette  and  cup 
of  coffee,  their  courts  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  Occident.  The 
Tribunal  Correctlonel  de  Pera  takes  care  of  the  police  matters 
of  this  suburb.  Important  cases,  involving  felonies  of  high 
degree,  are  sent  to  the  higher  tribunals  in  Stamboul.  In  such 
cases  the  tribunal  at  Pera  is  only  an  examining  and  committing 
court. 

Taking  along  our  dragoman,  I  make  a  call  at  the  Court  House 
in  Pera.  It  is  in  the  centre  of  the  thronging  population  on  the 
Grand  Rue.  When  we  enter,  the  court  has  not  convened,  but 
the  Chief  Judge,  Hilmi  Effendi,  is  upon  the  bench  reading 
papers.  He  is  a  Turk.  He  has  had  great  judicial  and  police 
experience  in  the  interior  before  he  came  here.  He  is  noted  for 
his  shrewd  knowledge  of  the  kind  of  characters  who  come  before 
him — a  veritable  Judge  Dowling  of  the  Tombs  of  twenty  years 
ago.     He  speaks  French,  but  not  English. 

We  are  invited  to  a  seat  by  his  side,  and  pass  the  time  in 
talking  about  modes  and  codes  of  criminal  practice  in  various 
countries.  We  agreed  that  it  was  a  cruel  fate  to  be  imprisoned 
simply  because  one  happens  to  be  an  observer  of  a  crime.  In 
fact,  we  agree  that  it  is  one  of  the  ridiculous  eccentricities  of 
human  order  thus  to  punish  the  innocent,  that  society  might  have 
security. 

One  thing  leads  to  another,  until  our  talk  takes  the  direction 
of  the  whims  of  the  elder  day  of  the  old  cadis,  who,  like  our 
Western  squires  in  America,  substituted  their  own  sense  of  equity 
as  the  rule  of  right.  Between  cigarettes  and  coffee  I  relate  a  story 
of  a  Hungarian  justice,  doubtless  of  Oriental  origin  : 

******* 

In  the  interior  of  Hungary  a  Turkish  agent  is  sent  to  buy 
cavalry  horses  to  recruit  for  the  then  probable  war  with  Bulgaria 
and  Greece.  While  there  the  agent  desires  that  the  proprietor  of 
a  village,  with  whom  he  was  contracting,  should  show  him  a  spe- 
cimen of  the  Hungarian  mode  of  proceeding. 


POLICE  OF  THE  ORIENT. 


351 


"Wait  a  few  moments,"  says  the  proprietor,  who  is  also  a 
magistrate,  **  and  I  will  see  who  is  in  the  town  jail." 

Calling  his  constable,  he  is  informed  by  that  oflficer  that  a  goose 
thief  had  been  apprehended  during  the  night,  and  is  in  confinement. 
He  sends  for  the  criminal, 

* '  Are  there  any  witnesses  ? ' '  asks  the  judge. 

"Two,"  is  the  answer;  "the  man  who  owns  the  goose  and  a 
man  who  saw  the  theft." 

After  hearing  the  evidence,  the  judge,  in  his  fierce  and  harsh 
Hungarian-Finnish-Tartaric  tongue,  calls  up  the  culprit  and  says: 

"  You  have  been  found  guilty,  and  I  fine  you  ten  kreutzers 
and  ten  days'  imprisonment  for  stealing  the  goose!'' 

Thereupon  the  judge  summons  the  owner  of  the  bird: 

"  I  fine  you  ten  kreutzers  and  ten  days'  imprisonment  for 
allowing  your  goose  to  be  stolen! " 

Having  thus  disposed  of  the  parties,  the  judge,  turning  to  the 
witness,  says: 

"  Sirrah!  I  fine  you  ten  kreutzers  and  ten  days'  imprisonment 
for  not  minding  your  own  business! " 

Hilmi  Effendi  listens  with  interest  to  this  story  of  Slavonic 
justice,  and  remarks  that  almost  as  odd  a  case  recently  came 
before  one  of  the  courts  of  Stamboul. 

A  creditor  comes  to  the  judge  to  have  a  note  sued.  It  is  for 
1,500  piastres,  and  not  due  until  three  years  after  the  complaint 
is  made.  The  judge  entertains  the  suit,  and  condemns  the 
creditor  to  confinement  for  three  years. 

"  For,"  said  his  honor  :  **  How  do  I  know  where  you  will  be 
three  years  hence,  so  as  to  pay  you  the  piastres,  unless  I  hold 
you  ? " 

We  agree  that  this  is  an  improvement  on  the  American 
custom  of  the  imprisonment  of  witnesses  in  criminal  cases. 

In  Egypt,  long  before  the  Turkish  rule  in  that  region,  there 
were  struggles  between  the  Mamelukes  and  the  Circassians.  A 
Circassian  chief,  through  the  advice  of  a  servant,  who,  though 
ignorant,  was  naturally  astute,  happened  by  accident  to  discover 
the  weak  points  of  the  ruling  government  in  Egypt.  Upon  these 
points,  as  upon  the  rounds  of  a  ladder,  he  ascended  to  the  throne 


152 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


Formerly  the  Circassian  had  promised  the  servant  that  if  ever  he 
obtained  that  eminence,  the  servant  should  receive  the  appoint- 
ment of  Chief  Judge.  The  servant's  name  was  Caracoush,  mean- 
ing "black  bird."  So,  as  soon  as  the  chief  was  enthroned,  he 
gave  Caracoush  the  promised  post.  Among  the  many  cases  that 
came  before  him  was  the  following  petition: 

"  Being  a  burglar  by  profession,  and  compelled  by  want  to 
rob  a  house,  I  select  that  of  a  tailor.  To  enter  it  I  must  make 
my  way  through  the  courtyard.  This  is  surrounded  by  a  high 
wall.  In  jumpmg  from  this  wall  I  am  caught  on  the  spikes  the 
tailor  had  fixed  in  the  wall  to  suspend  ropes  for  the  washing.  The 
result  is,  I  lose  an  eye.  I  now  demand  that  my  eye  be  restored, 
and  that  the  fellow  who  drove  the  spike  shall  be  punished." 

The  judge  reads  the  petition,  and  concludes  that  justice  is  due 
the  petitioner.  He  summons  the  tailor,  to  whom  the  matter  is 
explained.  The  tailor  argues  that  the  thief  has  no  business  to 
jump  into  his  yard  in  the  night,  so  that  if  he  lost  an  eye,  it  is  his 
own  fault.     But  the  judge  remarks: 

"The  thief  is  only  practising  his  profession,  and  the  law  only 
punishes  robbers." 

"If,"  he  says  to  the  tailor,  ''you  had  not  driven  the  spikes  in 
the  walls,  the  thief  would  not  have  lost  his  eye  ;  therefore  your 
eye  must  pay  the  forfeit." 

The  poor  tailor  begs  and  cries  in  vain.  The  verdict  is  pro- 
nounced. It  must  be  executed.  After  a  long  struggle,  the  tailor 
seizes  the  knees  of  the  judge,  kisses  them  vigorously,  and  with 
tears  in  his  eyes  exclaims: 

"  Oh  !  mighty  judge.  Your  decision  is  sound,  but  consider. 
Am  Tnot  supporting  a  large  family — my  old  mother,  my  wife, 
and  my  seven  young  children  ?  They  all  depend  on  me,  and  I 
myself  depend  on  my  two  eyes.  Am  I  not  a  tailor  ?  Do  I  not 
need  my  two  eyes  ?  If  I  lose  one,  how  can  I  pass  the  thread  into 
the  needle's  eye  ?  How  can  I  do  my  fine  sewing  ?  My  reputa- 
tion will  suffer  and  all  of  us  starve  !" 

Seeing  some  sign  of  relenting  in  the  judicial  countenance,  the 
tailor  is  encouraged.     He  resumes,  brightening  : 

"  I  have  a  neighbor  who  is  a  sportsman.  When  he  aims  at 
the  game  he  shuts  one  eye.  Why,  great  judge,  his  two  eyes  are 
an  embarrassment  for  him  !  Had  he  but  one,  it  would  save  him 
the   trouble  of  shuttmg  the  other.      Moreover,  what  difference 


THE  TAILOR  AND  THE  BURGLAR, 


T  C   -> 
OJvJ 


does  it  make  to  this  robber  ?  All  he  wants  is  an  eye  pulled  out. 
Whether  it  be  mine  or  that  of  the  sportsman's,  what  matter  ?  It 
is  all  one  to  him." 

The  argument  sounds  plausible.  The  judge  considers  a  mo- 
ment, and  then  sends  for  the  sportsman.  In  spite  of  protests  he 
decrees  the  loss  of  the  sportsman's  superfluous  eye.  The  verdict 
is  carried  into  execution,  and  judicial  logic  is  vindicated  ! 


After  this  recital,  coffee  and  cigarettes  are  brought  into  the 
court  and  placed  before  us  on  the  bench,  and  we  resume  our 
good-natured  confabulation.  We  are  joined  by  one  of  the  asso- 
ciates of  the  court,  Sabit  Effendi. 

Finding  my  hearers  mterested,  I  entreat  them  to  listen  to  one 
more  of  my  Egyptian  stories,  illustrative  ot  Arab  justice.  I  had 
heard  it  from  a  story-teller  m  Cairo  in  my  recent  rambles  in  Egypt; 

I  had  been  trudging  about  with  our  Kavass,  Hassan-Hassan^ 
when  I  note  a  crowd  in  front  of  an  Arab  coffee-house  listening 
to  an  Arab  story-teller.  Hassan  is  good  in  Arabic,  and  seeing 
me  much  interested,  he  translates  the  story  faithfully.  It  inter- 
ests me  the  more,  as  it  had  some  mcidents  quite  familiar  to  the 
readers  of  Shakespeare.  It  was  all  about  a  poor  Arab  soldier, 
who  had  a  young  and  pretty  wife,  whom  he  loved  passing  well. 
An  old  and  wealthy  Jew  becomes  suddenly  enamored  of  her.  The 
soldier,  being  out  of  employment,  is  in  great  need  and  distress, 
and  his  wife  almost  starving.  She  proposes  a  plan  for  work.  He 
is  to  buy  a  hatchet  and  ropes,  and  repair  to  the  forest.  There  he  is 
to  cut  wood  and  sell  it,  while  she  takes  to  needlework.  He  goes  to 
the  Jew  for  a  loan  to  set  up  in  business.  The  Jew  sees  his  oppor- 
tunity, and,  after  the  usual  haggling,  loans  the  money  on  a  bond. 
The  penalty  of  the  bond  is  the  same  old  "  pound  of  flesh."  It  is 
the  Shylock  story  with  some  variations.  The  soldier  risks  the 
penalty,  but  fails  on  pay-day.  The  parties  are  summoned  before 
the  judge.     Half  the  penalty  of  the  bond  is  tendered. 

"  Produce  all  the  cash,  or  prepare  to  die  !  "  cries  the  Jew. 

A  scufile — not  set  down  in  Shakespeare — ensues.  The  sol- 
dier vanishes,  and  the  Jew  and  the  officers  start  in  pursuit.  Here 
Shakespeare  fails  again,  and  the  Orient  comes  to  the  fore.  In 
running  away,  the  soldier  tumbles  over  a  woman  in  the  street. 
She  is  in  an  interesting  situation.     Trouble  unmentionable  en- 


154 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  AV  TURKEY. 


sues.  Her  husband  joins  in  the  pursuit.  A  little  farther,  the 
soldier  runs  against  a  horseman  and  a  horse.  He  strikes  the 
horse  to  clear  the  way.  It  is  a  valuable  horse,  and  the  blow  puts 
out  one  of  its  eyes.  The  horseman  then  pursues  the  fugitive. 
The  soldier  escapes  out  of  the  city,  and  seeing  a  stone  quarry, 
prepares  to  hide  by  leaping  into  it. 

"  Bismillah  !  "  he  cries,  and  tumbles  in.  He  falls  on  a  shed, 
under  which  an  old  man  is  lying.  The  rafters  give  way.  The 
old  man  is  killed,  and  the  old  man's  son  seizes  the  runaway,  ties 
him,  and  brings  him  before  the  cadi. 

The  soldier  is  of  an  observing  turn  of  mind.  As  he  is  drag- 
ged along  to  court  he  notices  an  old  man  staggering  and  drunk. 
Further  on  he  observes  a  shrieking  man  tied  on  a  bier  en  route  to 
the  tomb  to  be  buried  alive.  These  observations  terrify  the  sol- 
dier. When  he  reaches  the  judicial  presence  he  trembles  and 
perspires  at  every  pore.  The  witnesses  for  the  state  are  called — 
Jew,  husband,  horse  owner,  and  the  son  of  the  old  man.  The 
reporters  take  down  the  evidence,  and  the  lawyers  argue  ;  and 
thus  per  curiam  : 

To  the  Jew  :  "  Bring  out  your  scales,  sirrah  !  Sharpen  your 
knife  !  Cut  off  the  pound  of  flesh  !  It  is  a  foolish  bond,  but  the 
soldier  must  pay  the  forfeit.  But,  mind  you,  no  bone,  no  skin, 
shall  be  touched.  One  cut  only.  No  additional  torture  by  more 
than  one  cut.  Neither  " — and  here  comes  in  our  own  Shakes- 
peare— "  neither  exceed  nor  come  short  of  the  exact  onp  pound  ! 
If  you  do,  the  Koran  hath  a  retribution  in  its  law." 

The  Jew  gives  up  his  claim,  and  is  fined  five  silver  pieces  for 
unreasonable  prosecution. 

To  the  relative  of  the  disabled  woman  :  "  Let  the  woman  be 
made  over  to  the  defendant  and  restored  to  her  health  and  her  pre- 
vious condition,  and  then  to  her  injured  husband. 

The  relative  is  shocked,  and  especially  so  when  the  family  is 
fined  ten  pieces  for  taking  up  the  time  of  the  court. 

To  the  horseman  :  "  Send  for  some  sawyers  !.  Divide  the 
horse  longitudinally,  from  the  middle  part  of  his  head  to  the  end 
of  his  tail.  You,  complainant,  take  the  sound  half.  The  other 
part  to  the  defendant,  who  must  pay  loo  pieces  for  the  loss." 

As  this  sum  would  not  be  equal  to  the  loss  of  the  animal,  the 
horseman  is  allowed  to  withdraw  on  paying  twenty  pieces. 

To  the  son  of  the  old  man  who  was  killed  :    "  Let  the  offender 


A  COMPLICATED  CASE. 


355 


be  dragged  to  the  stone  quarry,  placed  on  the  spot  where  the  old 
man  lay,  and  let  the  son  jump  down  on  him." 

The  young  man  thereupon  modifies  his  original  statement,  and 
says  :     "On  second  thought,  the  affair  was  an  accident." 

On  this  phase  of  the  case,  the  son  is  fined  forty  pieces  for 
bringing  the  suit  before  the  learned  tribunal. 

The  story-teller  does  not  stop  here.     With  all  the  marvelous 


m 


sequences  and  imitations  of  one 
of  the  thousand  and  one  tales,  he 
holds  his  audience  eager  to  know 
the  rest.  One  of  the  excited 
auditors  cries  out  in  Arabic, 
while  a  murmur  thrills  through 
the  crowd  : 

"  What  of  the  drunken  man  ? 
What  of  the  burying  of  the  live 
man  ?  What  has  that  to  do 
with  it  ? " 

"Well,"  resumes  the  story- 
teller, "well,  the  soldier-prisoner 
being  reluctant  to  leave  so  good 
a  judge,  and  seeming  anxious  to  say  something,  the  judge  asks 
him  to  talk. 

"  '  Oh  !  learned  judge,'  he  says,  '  you  are  so  wise  that  I  won- 
der at  seeing  in  your  bailiwick  forbidden  liquor  and  a  drunken 
old  sot.' 

"  '  Thank  you,'  says  the  judge.  'The  law  is,  that  forbidden 
things  are  lawful  in  cases  of  necessity.  I  appointed  that  vener- 
able man  to  test  the  spirits  brought  here  for  sale.     It  disguised 


TURKISH  iex  talioniSy  or  JUMPING 
ON  THE  OLD  MAN. 


356  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

him  in  his  lawful  duty.  Therefore  I  now  know  its  poisonous 
adulteration.  As  to  the  burying  case,  the  burial  was  ordered  by 
the  court,  for  know  that  six  years  ago  that  man's  wife  was  mar- 
ried to  another  man  according  to  the  statute,  two  witnesses  hav- 
ing sworn  that  the  husband  had  died  at  Bagdad.  The  first 
husband  appears,  claims  that  he  is  not  dead,  and  advances  a  claim 
for  the  restoration  of  his  wife.  I  send  for  the  two  witnesses. 
They  stand  to  it  that  they  attended  the  funeral  and  saw  the  man 
buried.  Therefore  this  is  not  a  real  man,  only  his  image  or 
ghost.     There  must  be  an  end  of  trouble  and  litigation.'  " 

The  soldier  has  some  misgivings,  but  dissembles  them.  He 
praises  the  cadi's  equity  and  retires. 

******* 

The  justices  seem  to  suppress  with  difficulty  considerable 
hilarity  over  this  story.  After  resuming  our  cigarettes  and  refill- 
ing our  dainty  coffee-cups,  the  chief,  Hilmi  Effendi,  remarks  that 
these  Arabic  precedents  are  often  quoted  in  the  interior — meaning 
Asia  Minor — and  that  he  would  call  on  me  some  time  and  take 
up  the  Egyptian  thread,  and  follow  the  clue  until  its  labyrinth 
led  us  to  the  sacred  precincts  of  Mecca. 

Our  dragoman,  Mr.  Garguilo,  who  is  well  versed  in  the  Koran 
and  familiar  with  the  courts  here,  breaks  the  reserve  in  which  he 
had  indulged.  After  a  few  whiffs  of  his  cigarette  and  a  twinkle  in 
his  big  Levantine  eye,  he  gravely  remarks  that  not  only  is  the 
administration  of  justice  conducted  with  a  curious  and  humorous 
turn  in  the  East,  but  the  detection  of  criminals  often  displays  a 
cunning  that  a  Vidocq  might  envy,  or  a  Gaboriau  long  to  describe. 
In  illustration,  he  says  : 

*  *  *  *      •  !(c  -in  if. 

"  I,et  me  give,  not  a  romantic  incident,  but  a  veritable  narra- 
tive— as  it  was  told  to  me  some  years  ago,  when  I  was  trying  a  case 
at  Kharpoot." 

As  the  police  court  is  not  to  convene  for  a  hour,  the  patience 
of  the  Ottoman  is  called  to  the  front,  and  the  dragoman  begins 
his  recital,  as  follows  : 

"  A  few  years  ago,"  said  he,  "on  the  occasion  of  the  anni- 
versary of  Queen  Victoria's  accession  to  the  throne,  Mr.  J.  H. 
Skene,  English  Consul  at  Aleppo,  gives  a  dinner.  He  holds  an 
evening  reception,  where  the  crime  of  the  society  at  Aleppo  is 


ORIENTAL  JUSTICE.  357 

gathered.  A  large  number  of  guests  are  invited  to  the  Consul's 
table.  Great  pains  are  taken  to  make  the  dinner  as  pleasant  as 
possible.  In  Aleppo  nothing  speaks  so  eloquently  as  display. 
Flowers  in  profusion  decorate  the  table  and  the  apartments. 
Every  piece  of  silverware  is  brought  out  to  add  to  the  splendor  of 
the  festivity.  The  table  service  is  of  solid  silver.  The  Kavasses  of 
the  Consulate  wear  their  gorgeous  gold-trimmed  clothes  and  bear 
their  inlaid  pistols  and  yataghans.  After  dinner  the  party  leaves 
the  dining-room.  They  go  into  the  salon,  where  a  large  number 
of  guests  are  assembled.     The  party  is  a  success, 

"  The  servants  of  the  house  have  been  occupying  themselves 
with  serving  the  guests — passing  coffee  to  one,  tea  to  another,  a 
narghile  to  a  third,  and  a  chibouque  to  a  fourth,  and  so  on,  so  that 
everything  in  the  dining-room  is  apparently  trusted  to  the  care  of 
the  Kavasses.  But  what  is  the  surprise  of  the  Consul  when,  on 
the  day  after  the  fete,  he  finds  that  the  silverware  has  disappeared. 
Search  is  made  in  every  part  of  the  house.  Not  a  single  piece  is 
•discovered.  There  is  general  consternation,  not  so  much  on  the 
part  of  the  Consul  himself  as  on  the  part  of  those  in  his  service. 
After  mature  reflection  upon  the  mishrp,  the  Consul  calls  the 
most  intelligent  of  his  Kavasses.  He  questions  him.  The 
Kavass  insists  that  he  did  not  steal  the  silver,  and  that  he  does 
not  know  who  did. 

"  But  the  Consul  is  a  good  detective,  and  ready  in  his  knowl- 
■edge  of  men  and  things.  He  is  also  a  cool-tempered  man.  He 
says  to  his  Kavass  : 

"  '  There  is  no  use  to  swear.  I  am  not  going  to  change  my 
opinion.  I  have  good  reasons  to  suspect  you  to  be  the  thief,  and 
I  mean  that  you  shall  bring  my  silver  to  me  within  twenty-four 
hours,  else  you  will  be  put  in  the  hands  of  the  authorities,  and 
you  will  not  get  away  until  I  find  my  property.  There  is  no 
alternative.' 

"  *  Mr.  Consul,'  said  the  Kavass,  *  I  have  already  told  you  that 
I  did  not  steal  your  silver.' 

"  The  Kavass  begs  for  two  or  three  hours'  time,  and  leaves.,  In 
an  hour  he  returns,  bringing  with  him  by  the  bridle  a  little  don- 
key. This  he  presents  to  the  Consul,  stating  that  the  donkey 
would  find  the  thief,  if  he  would  allow  the  animal  to  be  placed  in 
one  of  the  rooms  and  the  window  shutters  to  be  closed,  so  as  to 
darken  the  room. 


358 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  LV  TURKEY. 


"  *  Do  so!'  said  the  Consul,  who  is  curious  to  see  what  would 
result. 

"  After  the  donkey  is  placed  in  the  dark  room,  the  Kavass 
asks  the  Consul  to  call  everybody  in  the  house — masters,  em- 
ployees, Kavasses  and  servants.  They  come.  They  are  placed 
in  front  of  the  door  of  the  room  where  the  donkey  is. 

"When  all  are  present,  the  Kavass  says  : 

"  '  Now  we  are  to  enter  this  room  one  by  one,  and  as  soon  as 
we  get  in,  we  are  to  take  a  pull  at  the  donkey's  tail.  The  donkey 
will  make  no  sign.  It  will  say  nothing  unless  the  robber  is 
among  us.  Then  you  may  depend  on  it  he  will  bray,  and  indicate 
who  has  stolen  your  goods.  Oh,  do  not  laugh.  I  have  had  occa- 
sion to  make  use  of  that  remedy.     It  never  fails. 

"  *  Now,'  says  he  to  the  Consul,   '  you  go  in  first  and  pull  the 
tail.    We  will  all  follow  you,  one  by  one.' 

'*  The  singular  procession  begins,  the  Consul  in  the  lead.  Every 
one  enters  the  room  and  pulls  at  the  donkey's  tail,  but  the  don- 
key does  not  bray.  After  the  performance  is  over  and  all  come 
out,  the  Consul  asks  if  all  of  them  have  really  pulled  at  the  tail. 
All  respond  emphatically,  'Yes.' 

'*  '  How  strange  it  is,'  said  he,  *  that  the  donkey  did  not  bray  \ 
It  seems  that  the  thief  is  not  to  be  found  among  us.  I  cannot 
explain  it  otherwise.' 

"  He  then  forms  them  in  a  circle  around  him. 

"  *  Now,  gentlemen,'  he  says,  'hands  up,  please.' 

"  Every  one  obeys. 

"  '  Here  is  your  man,  Mr.  Consul,'  says  he,  all  at  once,  point- 
ing at  one  of  the  party — a  servant.  '  You  see,  every  one  who 
entered  the  room  pulled  at  the  tail,  and  thus  got  his  or  her  hands 
blackened,  while  this  man  did  not  pull  on  the  tail,  as  he  was  sure 
the  donkey  would  bray.     Consequently  his  hands  are  clean.' 

■if.  %  if.  if.  %  ili  if. 

"The  fact  is,"  said  our  dragoman  in  conclusion,  "there  is  so 
much  superstition  among  the  common  people  of  the  East  that 
such  devices  are  sure  to  make  an  almost  supernatural  impression. 
However,  the  man  confessed,  and  the  silver  was  returned." 

We  generally  concurred  in  the  opinion  that  such  modes 
of  detection  would  not  operate  successfully  in  I^ondon,  Paris, 
New  York  or  Constantinople,  where  no  such  childish  ruses 
would  produce  the  required  results  ;  but  the  simple  Arab  of  the 


S9» 


360  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

interior  shrank  from  the  experimentum  cruets,  as  if  it  were  not  a 
donkey's  tail  powdered  with  charcoal,  but  an  ordeal  of  fire,  under 
the  judgment  of  Allah. 

What  is  the  principle  lying  at  the  foundation  of  these  simple 
proceedings  and  strange  rulings  of  the  old  Oriental  officers  and 
cadis  ?  Some  general  thought  must  be  their  base.  This  question 
we  agreed  to  reserve. 

We  bade  our  judicial  friends  good  by,  and  carried  with  us  the 
memory  of  a  happy  hour,  amusing  and  instructive. 

May  I  attempt  a  commentary  as  the  conclusion  of  my  string 
of  anecdotes  ? 

From  the  time  of  Solomon's  decision  as  to  the  proprietorship 
of  the  disputed  baby,  to  the  case  of  the  bad  Manhattan  husband, 
who  was  paroled  in  charge  of  his  wife  by  Justice  Power,  there 
have  been  many  rare  touches  of  this  homely  equity,  after  which 
law  is  said  to  limp.  The  Orient  is  Xh^  fons  et  origo  of  these  wise 
tests,  which  are  applied  by  sagacious  judges  to  the  affairs  of  men. 
The  idea  which  lies  nearest  to  the  corner-stone  of  Mahometan 
power  is  the  idea  of  justice,  honestly  administered,  without  tech- 
nical hindrances.  An  incident  in  the  history  of  this  capital  city 
will  serve  to  test  this  remark. 

After  Mahomed  II.  had  conquered  Constantinople,  he  was 
told  that  the  fall  of  the  Greek  empire  had  been  predicted  by  two 
Greek  priests  two  years  before,  and  that  these  priests  were  still 
in  the  city.     Mahomed  sent  for  them.     He  asks  : 

"  How  did  you  know  that  I  would  besiege  and  take  Constan- 
tinople?" 

They  respond  : 

"  It  was  not  a  guess,  nor  a  prophecy,  your  Majesty  !  It  was 
by  close  observation  of  the  lack  of  administration,  and  especially 
of  justice,  by  which  we  formed  our  opinions." 

"  How  long  is  my  power  over  this  country  going  to  last?" 
asks  Mahomed. 

"  We  cannot  tell  now,"  respond  the  priests.  "We  must  have 
three  months*  time  in  which  to  make  investigations  as  to  the 
administration  of  justice,  and  for  that  we  require  a  firman  from 
your  Majesty,  so  that  we  may  be  allowed  to  visit  the  courts,  and 
also  5,000  piastres  for  our  traveling  expenses." 

The  Sultan  grants  all  they  ask,  and  they  leave. 

During  their  tour  they  find  themselves  in  a  village  where  a 


STRANGE  DECISIONS  IN  THE  EAST.  ^6 1 

certain  Mehemed  had  bought  a  horse  from  a  man  of  the  name  of 
Osmijn.  He  paid  for  it  three  hundred  piastres  ;  that  is,  one 
hundred  cash  and  two  hundred  on  time,  to  be  paid  two  or  three 
days  later.  Mehemed  took  the  horse  home,  but,  to  his  surprise, 
it  refused  all  food.  The  animal  was  sick.  In  the  morning 
Mehemed  took  the  horse  back  to  Osman,  protesting  against  the 
bargain.  He  had  intended  to  buy  a  sound  horse.  This  one  was 
sick.  He  wished  Osman  to  take  it  back  and  return  the  one  hun- 
dred piastres  paid.  Osman  answered  that  he  had  sold  a  sound 
horse,  and  declined  to  take  a  sick  one  back.  He  insisted  on  the 
payment  of  the  balance  due.  The  neighbors  interposed  in  vain, 
and  the  two  parties  concluded  to  apply  to  the  court.  Mehemed 
and  Osman  start  for  the  chief  town  to  see  the  judge.  When 
arrived  at  the  court  they  find  the  judge  absent — gone  to  his  bath. 
As  the  hour  is  late  they  decide  to  return  home  and  come  back 
in  the  morning,  bringing  the  horse  with  them.  Unfortunately, 
during  the  night  the  horse  dies  in  the  hands  of  Mehemed. 

The  second  day  they  go  to  see  the  judge  again.  Both  sides 
state  the  case.  Osman  insists  that  he  can  produce  witnesses  to 
testify  that  the  horse  was  sound.  Mehemed  asserts  that  the  best 
evidence  of  the  horse  being  sick  is  that  he  died  the  previous  night. 

"Oh,"  said  the  judge,  hoping  to  find  a  clue  on  which  to  found 
a  decision,  "  when  did  the  horse  die  ?  " 

"  The  second  day  after  it  was  taken  by  Mehemed."  . 

**  Why,  then,  did  you  not  come  while  the  horse  was  alive  ? ' 
asks  the  judge. 

"  We  came,  but  you  were  at  the  bath." 

"  Now  I  see,"  rejoins  the  judge,  and,  turning  to  his  servant, 
orders  him  to  bring  a  box  wherein  his  documents  and  moneys  are 
kept.     The  box  is  brought  and  opened. 

**  What  is  your  claim,  Mehemed  ?"  he  asks. 

"The  restitution  of  the  hundred  piastres." 

The  judge,  taking  the  sum  from  the  box,  hands  it  to  Mehemed. 
He  then  asks  Osman: 

"What  is  your  claim  ?" 

The  payment  of  the  two  hundred  piastres,  the  balance  of  the 
price  for  the  horse." 

Taking  from  his  box  this  sum,  it  is  paid  over  to  Osman. 

On  being  asked,  "  What  does  all  this  mean  ?"  the  judge 
replies : 


-^62  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

"  Had  I  not  been  absent  when  the  two  men  came  the  first 
time,  I  would  have  been  able  to  decide  justly,  in  accordance 
with  the  sacred  law;  but  my  absence  from  the  bench,  at  the  bath, 
postponed  the  trial,  and  meanwhile  the  horse  dies.  I  cannot  give 
any  decision.     It  is  my  fault,  and  that  is  why  I  pay  these  sums." 

The  two  priests  return  to  Constantinople.  They  state  what 
they  had  seen. 

"Well,'  said  Mahomed,  "what  is  your  opinion  now  as  to  the 
durability  of  my  power  ? " 

"Your  Majesty,"  said  the  priests,  "as  long  as  justice  con- 
tinues to  be  administered  as  we  have  witnessed  it,  your  reign  here 
will  be  everlasting  !" 

If  one  should  look  for  the  idea  of  Oriental  justice  underlying 
the  stories  I  have  narrated,  it  would  be  found  in  the  reality  or 
simulacrum  of  that  rule  which  is  written  in  the  Mosiac  code — the 
lex  talionis. 

Kind,  hospitable  and  trusting  as  are  the  Orientals,  they  have 
ideas  of  revenge  not  based  on  passion  or  malignity.  It  is  a  part 
of  their  system.  There  is  a  story  at  the  end  of  the  "  Thou- 
sand and  One  Nights,"  which  illustrates  m  a  whimsical  way  this 
law  of  retaliation.  The  story  is  thought  by  some  annotators  to 
apply  to  Moses;  but  it  has  a  varied  application  in  literature.  It  is 
found  in  a  certain  form  in  Parnell's  "Hermit,"  but  its  true 
source  is  in  the  Koran,  or,  rather,  in  the  Pentateuch,  from  which  so 
much  of  the  Koran  is  derived.     Here  is  the  story  abbreviated  : 

A  prophet  goes  into  a  mountain,  beneath  which  is  a  spring  of 
water.  During  the  day  he  sits  on  the  summit,  and  the  people 
who  come  to  the  spring  see  him  not.  He  sees  them.  One  day 
he  perceives  a  horseman  dismount  at  the  spring.  He  puts  down 
his  leathern  bag,  rests,  drinks,  and  retires  He  leaves  the  bag 
behind  him.  It  is  full  of  gold  pieces.  Another  man  comes, 
drinks  and  departs.  He  takes  away  the  bag.  Then  there  comes 
a  third  man.  He  is  a  wood-cutter.  He  rests  and  drinks,  when 
lo!  the  first  man  dashes  in,  distressed  for  the  loss  of  his  bag  of 
gold  pieces. 

"  Where,"  he  exclaims,  "  is  my  leathern  bag  of  gold  pieces  ?" 

The  wood-cutter  replies:  "  Truly,  I  know  nothing  of  it." 

The  horseman  draws  his  sword  and  slays  the  wood-cutter.  He 
searches  his  clothes,  but  finds  nothing,  and  departs. 

The  prophet  upon  the  mountain  observes  these  incidents.  He 


O  7*7  OMAN  yUS  TICE  AND  PERMANENC  Y.  363 

addresses  Allah  to  resolve  the  mystification  of  his  mind  about  the 
divine  justice  of  these  proceedings.     Allah  says  to  him: 

"  Occupy  thyself  with  thy  devotion  !  One  thing  is  thine  ; 
another  is  mine.  You  are  limited  in  your  knowledge.  You  see 
but  in  part,  and  hence  you  fail  to  reason.  The  father  of  this 
horseman  had  forcibly  taken  a  thousand  pieces  of  gold  from  the 
property  of  the  father  of  the  supposed  robber.  I  only  put  the  son 
in  possession  of  his  own.  The  wood-cutter  had  slain  the  father 
of  the  horseman.     Wherefore — the  retaliation  !" 

Then  the  prophet  exclaims:  "Extolled  be  Thy  perfection! 
There  is  no  Deity  but  Thee,  Keeper  of  genealogies  and  All-wise 
Dispenser  of  justice  !" 

After  all,  are  not  most  of  the  codes,  East  and  West,  to  say 
nothing  of  human  conduct,  founded  upon  this  natural  law  of 
Moses  and  Mahomet — the  law  of  retaliation  ?  Were  this  not  an 
element  in  human  action  and  jurisprudence,  would  we  not  lack 
many  serious  and  humorous  illustrations  of  the  better  side  of 
that  nature  ? 

Thus  philosophizing,  we  return  to  the  Golden  Horn.  There 
we  take  our  launch  for  the  isle  of  Prinkipo,  where  we  are  passing 
our  second  summer  in  the  East. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE   dragoman's  STORY — "WHICH  OF  THE  TWO,  THE  BAD   OR  THE 
STUPID    MAN  ?" 

Several  years  ago  the  dragoman  of  our  American  Legation 
at  Constantinople  was  asked  to  act  as  arbitrator  in  a  dispute 
between  a  foreigner  and  an  old  Turkish  doctor  in  law  and  the- 
ology. After  several  meetings  with  them,  the  dragoman  con- 
cluded that  the  doctor  was  an  ill-natured  and  unmanageable 
person.  The  latter  had  served  for  some  years  as  cadi  of  the 
Civil  Court  at  Smyrna.  The  dragoman  related  a  story  for  his 
instruction.  The  story  as  to  its  place  was  in  old  Stamboul.  As  to  its 
time,  it  does  not  matter  much.  Its  moral  is  for  every  place  and 
for  all  time.  But  it  took  place  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, when  the  Turkish  power  was  well  established  and  growing. 
In  other  words,  it  was  during  the  reign  of  Amurath  III.,  the  sixth 
emperor  of  the  Ottomans,  and  grandson  of  Suleiman  the  Magnifi- 
cent. This  Sultan  was  not,  as  the  sequel  of  the  story  shows, 
the  worst  of  the  Ottoman  emperors.  He  was  a  tall,  manly  man, 
rather  fat  and  quite  pale,  with  a  thin  long  beard.  His  face  was  not 
of  a  fierce  aspect,  like  other  Sultans.  He  was  no  rioter  or  reveler. 
He  punished  drunkards,  and  as  for  himself  he  indulged  only  in 
wormwood  wine.  His  people  knew  that  he  loved  justice,  and 
although,  according  to  an  old  chronicle,  he  caused  his  brothers  to 
be  strangled,  "at  which  so tragicall  a  sight  that  he  let  some teares 
fall,  as  not  delighting  in  such  barbarous  crueltie,  but  that  the 
state  and  manner  of  his  gouernment  so  required,"  still,  he  was, 
as  the  time  was,  a  good  prince. 

But  to  the  dragoman's  story.  Its  moral  had  its  uses,  as  the 
sequel  reveals.  This  is  the  story,  as  it  was  told  in  one  of  the 
leisure  hours  at  the  Legation  last  summer: 

"  There  was  a  man,  Mustapha  by  name,  who  lived  near  the 
Golden  Gate.  He  was  well  off,  and  when  about  to  die,  he  called 
his  son  to  him  and  said: 

** '  My  dear  boy,  I  am  dying.     Before  I  go,  I  want  to  give  you 

364 


A  STJiANGE  WILL. 


365 


my  last  will.  Here  are  one  hundred  pounds.  You  will  give  it  to 
the  worst  man  you  can  find.  Here  are  one  hundred  pounds  more. 
This  you  will  give  to  the  stupidest  man  you  can  discover.' 

*'  A  few  days  after,  the  father  died.  The  son  began  to  search 
for  the  bad  man.  Several  men  were  pointed  out,  but  he  was  not 
satisfied  that  they  were  the  worst  of  men.  Finally  he  hired  a  horse 
and  went  up  to  Yosgat,  m  Asia  Minor.  There  the  population  unani- 
mously pointed  out  their  cadi  as  the  worst  man  to  be  found  any- 
where. This  information  satisfied  the  son.  He  called  on  the 
cadi.     He  told  the  story  of  the  w:ll,  and  added: 

" '  As  I  am  desirous  that  the  will  of  my  father  be  accom- 
plished, I  beg  you  to  receive  these  hundred  pounds.* 

'•  Said  the  cadi,  *  How  do  you  know  that  I  am  so  bad  as  I  am 
represented  ?' 

"  'It  is  the  testimony  of  the  whole  town,'  said  the  son. 

"  '  I  must  tell  you,  young  man,'  said  the  cadi,  *  that  it  is  con- 
trary to  my  principles  to  accept  any  bribe  or  present.  If  I  ever 
receive  money,  it  is  only  for  a  con-sid-er-a-tion.  Unless  I  give 
you  the  counter-value  of  your  money,  I  cannot  accept  it.' 

"  This  reply  of  the  cadi  seemed  just.  It  puzzled  the  young 
man.  However,  as  he  desired  to  fulfill  his  father's  will,  he  con- 
tinued to  urge -the  cadi: 

♦'  *  Mr.  Judge,*  said  he,  '  if  you  sell  me  something,  could  not 
the  will  of  my  father  be  fulfilled?' 

" '  Let  me  see,*  said  the  cadi,  looking  around  to  find  out  what 
on  earth  he  could  sell  to  the  youth,  without  destroying  the  spirit 
of  the  will.  He  reflected  for  a  long  time.  Then  all  at  once  he 
was  struck  with  a  bright  idea.  Seeing  that  the  courtyard  of  his 
house  was  filled  with  snow,  about  two  feet  deep,  he  said  to  the 
youth  : 

"  '  I  will  sell  you  yonder  snow.    Do  you  accept  the  bargain  ?' 

*'  *  Yes,'  said  the  youth,  seeing  that  there  was  nothing  of  value 
m  the  snow. 

"  The  cadi  then  executed  a  regular  deed,  the  fees  of  which 
were  paid,  of  course,  by  the  purchaser.  The  son  then  paid 
the  hundred  pounds  for  the  snow. 

**  The  boy  went  home;  but  he  was  not  quite  certain  that  he 
had  strictly  fulfilled  the  will  of  his  father;  for,  after  all,  the  cadi 
did  not  appear  to  him  to  be  so  very  bad.  Had  he  not  decidedly 
refused  to  accept  the  money  without  a  legal  consideration  ? 


366  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


THE  BAD  MAN.  367 

«'  His  perplexity  was  of  short  duration. 

♦*  The  second  day,  early  in  the  morning,  the  scribe  of  the  cadi 
called  on  the  youth  and  told  him  that  the  cadi  wished  to  see  him. 

"  'Well,  I  will  go,'  said  the  youth. 

«♦ '  No,'  said  the  scribe ;  *  I  am  ordered  to  take  you  there.* 

"The  youth  resisted,  and  the  scribe  insisted.  Finally  the 
youth  was  compelled  to  submit,  and  went. 

<' '  What  do  you  want  of  me,  Cadi  Effendi,'  said  the  boy. 

"  '  Ah!  you  are  welcome,'  responded  the  cadi; '  I  wanted  you  to 
come,  because  you  have  some  snow  in  the  courtyard  which  bothers 
me  a  great  deal.  The  authorities  cannot  shoulder  such  a  responsi- 
bility. Is  not  the  deposit  exposed  ?  Can  it  be  put  under  lock  like 
other  property  ?  Besides,  does  it  not  occupy  the  road  to  which 
the  people  have  the  right  of  easement  ?  What  follows  ?  The 
result  is,  that  your  snow  will  be  trampled  or  stolen,  or  it  will 
melt,  and  then  all  the  responsibility  will  rest  on  me.  I  am 
not  prepared  to  assume  it.  I  request  you  to  carry  away  your 
snow.' 

'*  '  But,  Cadi  Effendi,'  said  the  boy,  *  I  do  not  care.  Let  it 
melt;  let  it  be  stolen;  let  it  be  trampled  on;  I  will  make  no  claim 
for  its  value.' 

"  *  Nothing  of  the  kind,'  said  the  cadi.  *  You  have  no  right 
to  close  the  public  way  in  that  manner.  Unless  you  take  away 
your  snow,  I  will  confine  you  in  prison,  and  make  you  answer  for 
the  nuisance,  and  for  the  decay  of  the  property,  which  may  be 
claimed  by  your  heirs  at  some  future  time.' 

"'Let  it  be  swept  out,'  said  the  youth;*  I  will  defray  the 
expense.' 

"  '  Nonsense! '  indignantly  responded  the  cadi.  ♦  Am  I  your 
servant  ?  Besides,  will  it  not  take  a  great  deal  of  money  to  have 
the  snow  swept  out  ? ' 

"  *  I  will  pay  the  expense,  whatever  it  is,'  said  the  youth. 

"  '  Well,  It  requires  twenty  pounds,'  said  the  cadi. 

"  *  I  will  pay  that  sum,'  said  the  youth. 

"  Thus  the  cadi  squeezed  out  twenty  pounds  more  from  the 
son  of  the  deceased. 

"  The  youth  is,  however,  content.  He  is  glad  to  find  in  this 
cadi  a  man  of  the  meanness  so  indispensable  to  the  fulfillment  of 
the  will  of  his  father. 


368  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


THE  PROCESSION.  369 

"  After  this  experience  the  youth  goes  in  search  of  the  stupid 
man.    He  must  filially  fulfill  the  second  clause  of  the  will. 

"  While  engaged  in  this  search  for  stupidity,  the  son  limits  his 
efforts  to  his  own  fair  city  of  Stamboul.  He  is  on  the  street 
leading  up  to  the  Sublime  Porte.  He  hears  a  band  of  music.  It 
is  moving  toward  the  Sublime  Porte.  He  is  cuuous  to  know 
what  it  all  means.  He  walks  toward  the  music.  When  at  a  short 
distance  he  discovers  a  grand  procession,  with  a  display  of 
soldiers.  He  notices  a  comparatively  old  man  riding  a  white 
Arabian  horse.  He  is  dressed  m  a  magnificent  uniform.  His 
breast  is  covered  with  decorations  of  every  size,  color  and  de- 
scription. The  trappings  of  the  horse  are  covered  with  gold 
embroideries.  The  old  man  is  surrounded  by  a  dozen  high 
officials  of  the  government  of  Amurath  IH.  They,  too,  are 
dressed  finely;  they  have  recently  returned  from  the  Caucasus 
laden  with  riches,  and  they  display  their  grand  robes  and  jewels. 
They  have  gorgeously  embroidered  uniforms  and  ride  splendid, 
horses.  They  are  followed  by  an  immense  crowd.  All  Galata,. 
as  well  as  Stamboul,  is  afoot  to  see  the  sight.  Murmurs  in  three- 
score dialects  rise  on  the  sunny  air.  The  son  of  Mustapha  fol- 
lows the  crowd.  He  asks  a  pedestrian  in  a  green  turban,  who  sits 
by  the  fountain  : 

"  '  What  is  the  procession  about  ? ' 

"  He  is  informed  that  the  old  man  is  the  newly  appointed 
Grand  Vizier  of  Amurath.  The  Vizier  is  going  to  take  possession 
of  his  post.  He  is  thus  escorted  with  the  usual  solemnity. 

"When  the  procession  arrives  at  the  gate  of  the  Sublime 
Porte,  the  Grand  Vizier  dismounts  on  the  foot-stone  in  front  of 
the  entrance,  and,  strange  to  say,  there  on  that  very  foot-stone 
is  a  big  tray;  and  on  the  tray,  a  human  head  freshly  decapitated. 

•*  The  sight  is  blood-curdling.  The  youth  is  struck  dumb 
with  horror.  Then,  recovering  his  senses,  he  finds  out  the  meaning 
of  the  usage.  He  is  told  that  the  bloody  head  is  that  of  the 
preceding  Grand  Vizier,  who  had  acted  wrongfully,  and  was  there- 
fore beheaded. 

"  '  Will  his  successor  succeed  him  in  the  tray  also  ?  '  asks  the 
youth,  of  a  zaptieh  who  was  standing  near  to  police  the  procession. 

*'  '  Nowadays,  it  is  difficult  to  escape  it,'  is  the  answer  of 
the  policeman. 

•*  After  this  answer,  the  youth  makes  immediate  inquiries. 


3  yo  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

He  discovers  the  '  Kiahaja '  of  the  new  Grand  Vizier,  for  every 
Grand  Vizier  has  a  factotujti.  He  goes  to  the  Kiahaja  and 
requests  him  to  deliver  to  the  Grand  Vizier  the  hundred  pounds 
which  his  father  had  willed.  The  Kiahaja,  after  inquiring  the 
name  of  the  youth  and  his  whereabouts,  receives  the  money. 
Later  on,  he  takes  the  hundred  pounds  to  the  Grand  Vizier.  This 
high  official  is  puzzled. 

"  '  Who,'  he  inquires,  '  is  the  friend  that  left  the  money  to 
me,  and  why  ? ' 

"  He  calls  for  the  youth.  The  youth  comes.  The  Grand 
Vizier  asks  him  about  his  father.    The  boy  replies  : 

"  *  His  name  was  Mustapha.  He  lived  near  the  Golden 
Gate;  but  you  did  not  know  him,  my  lord  I ' 

"  '  But  he  knew  me  ? ' 

"  '  No,  my  lord,  he  did  not,* 

"  '  Then  why  this  bequest  to  me  ? ' 

**  The  youth  then  gives  the  Grand  Vizier  the  story,  and  adds 
that  he  could  not  expect  to  find  a  more  stupid  man  or  a  greater 
idiot  than  the  Grand  Vizier;  therefore,  he  concludes  that  the  hun- 
dred pounds  are  due  to  that  official,  under  his  father's  will. 

"  This  puzzles  the  Grand  Vizier,  who  says: 

"  *  How  do  you  know  that  I  am  a  stupid  man  ?  Neither  you 
nor  your  father  knew  me.' 

"  '  Your  acceptance  of  the  position  of  Grand  Vizier,'  says  the 
youth,  '  in  the  presence  of  the  dead  head  of  your  predecessor, 
speaks  for  itself.     It  needs  no  explanation.' 

"  The  Grand  Vizier  can  make  no  rational  answer.  He  takes 
hold  of  his  beard,  strokes  it,  and  considers  for  a  minute. 

"  Then  he  says  to  the  youth:  '  Son  of  the  good  and  wise  Mus- 
tapha, will  you  not  be  my  guest  for  to-night  ?  To-morrow  morning 
I  must  talk  with  you.'     The  boy  accepts  the  invitation. 

"  In  the  morning  the  Grand  Vizier  calls  the  youth.  He  in- 
forms him  that  he  is  gomg  to  the  palace  of  Amurath  at  the 
Seraglio  Point.  He  desires  the  youth  to  accompany  him.  The 
boy  objects.  It  is  no  use.  The  Grand  Vizier  compels  him  to  go 
with  him. 

"  They  reach  the  palace.  The  Grand  Vizier  goes  straightway 
to  the  Chief  Eunuch,  and  thus  addresses  that  beautiful  Arabian: 

"  '  Your  Highness:  I  am  aware  that  His  Majesty,  in  bestowing 
on   me  the  responsible  and  confidential  position  of  Grand  Vizier, 


THE  GRAND  VIZIER  IS  THE  STUPID  MAN. 


371 


did  me  the  greatest  honor  a  man  can  ever  expect  in  this  world. 
I  am  grateful  to  him  for  such  a  rare  distinction.  But,  Highness, 
here  is  a  young  man  who  came  to  see  me  yesterda)-,  and  spoke  to 
me  in  such  a  wonderful  way  that  I  feel  bound  to  tender  my 
resignation.  After  my  conversation  with  him,  I  feel  incapable  of 
sustaining  the  dignity  which  His  Majesty  deserves.' 

"  The  Eunuch  is  thunderstruck  !  Up  to  that  time  no  Grand 
Vizier  had  ever  dared  to  resign.  But  the  action  of  the  Vizier 
seems  so  strange  to  the  Eunuch,  that  the  latter  at  once  goes  and 
reports  it  to  the  Sultan.  The  Sultan  is  amazed  and  indignant.  He 
demands  the  presence  of  the  Grand  Vizier  and  the  youth.  When 
they  appear  they  find  that  Amurath  is  not  in  one  of  his  best 
moods.  The  Janizaries  have  been  threatening  him.  His  wife, 
sister  and  mother,  on  whom  he  relies  for  comfort  in  his  poor 
health  and  mental  distress,  have  in  vain  endeavored  to  placate 
and  pacify  him.  His  pale  face  grows  scarlet  with  anger.  He 
hotly  addresses  the  Grand  Vizier: 

"  '  How  is  it,  sirrah  !  that  you  presume  to  dare  to  tender  your 
resignation  ? 

"  '  Your  Majesty,'  says  the  Grand  Vizier,  'I  know  that  I  am 
doing  a  bold  act ;  but  it  is  this  boy,'  pointing  out  the  simple 
youth,  *  who  compels  me  to  do  it.  If  your  Highness  wants  to 
know  the  reasons,  the  boy  will  give  them  to  you.  I  am  sure  that 
after  hearing  them  you  will  acknowledge  that,  as  I  am  considered 
the  most  stupid  man  in  your  empire,  it  is  not  becoming  to  your 
dignity  to  retain  me  as  your  immediate  representative.' 

*'  The  boy  is  then  called.  He  gives  his  story.  The  Sultan 
smiles.  His  innate  sense  of  justice  returns.  He  issues  an  irade 
that  henceforth  no  Grand  Vizier  shall  be  beheaded." 

******* 

Thus  ends  the  dragoman's  story.  He  has  recited  it  for  a 
moral  purpose.  At  its  conclusion  he  addresses  the  old  doctor  of 
Moslem  divinity  and  law,  as  follows: 

"  Now,  my  dear  Mollah,  you  do  not  wish  me  to  see  in  you  the 
bad  cadi  of  Yozgat.  I  shall  feel  exceedingly  sorry  if  you  com- 
pel me  thus  to  designate  you.  I  have  known  you  twenty-five 
years.  I  have  always  held  you  in  great  esteem.  Let  me  continue 
this  esteem,  if  possible." 

*'  As  to  your  opponent,"  resumed  the  dragoman's  arbitrator, 
*'  I  am  willing  to  place  him  in  the  situation  of  the  Grand  Vizier; 


3  72  DIVERSIONS  OP  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

because  he  has  stupidly  placed  himself  within  your  claws.  I  will 
then  take  the  position  of  the  youth  who,  by  his  courage  and 
frankness,  succeeded  in  extirpating  a  usage  which  worked  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  Sultan's  government  and  our  country." 

:|c  :|c  :|e  :)c  :|c  :)(  :|c 

The  dragoman  having  thus  concluded  his  tale,  the  Mollah 
changes  color  ;  from  crimson  to  blue,  from  blue  to  yellow,  and 
from  yellow  to  green.  He  tries  to  smile.  He  desires  to  go 
away;  but  as  the  dragoman  expects  this  movement,  coffee  had 
been  ordered. 

In  the  Orient  no  breach  of  etiquette  is  so  indecorous  as  that  of 
declining  a  hospitable  cup  of  Mocha. 

The  coffee  is  brought  in.  It  is  swallowed,  and  two  or  three 
cigarettes  are  smoked.  The  Mollah  is  cooled  down.  Finally  he 
accepts  reasonable  terms  in  the  dispute. 

On  this,  as  on  other  occasions,  an  amicable  understanding  is 
arrived  at  by  the  application  of  a  timely  story  with  an  Eastern 
moral.     The  moral  is  this: 

How  useful  are,  sometimes,  these  odd  incidents  of  life,  discreetly 
narrated,  which,  when  you  hear  them,  seem  to  amount  to  little,  but 
which,  when  you  know  ho7v  to  use  them  at  the  proper  time,  are  a 
great  relief  and  a  positive  benefaction. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

DIVERSIONS   AT    THE   LEGATION. 

The  word  "diplomacy"  appears  first  upon  the  tapis  at  the 
€nd  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  derived  from  the  Greek  word 
"diploma."  It  may  be  defined,  according  to  the  law  of  nations, 
in  an  extended  sense,  as  signifying  everything  connected  with  the 
ddministration  and  negotiation  of  foreign  affairs. 

I  never  had  occasion  to  use  what  diplomats  call  the  inter- 
territoriality,  which  is  vouchsafed  by  the  law  of  nations.  It  is  laid 
down  that  a  foreign  ambassador  is  entitled  to  demand  a  special 
guard  to  assure  his  safety.  This  is  usually  done,  say  the  writers, 
by  the  representatives  of  the  Christian  Powers  in  the  East,  and  in 
the  Barbary  states. 

Other  officials  besides  the  Kavass  are  associated  with  the 
American  Legation.  Their  personalities  are  a  constant  diver- 
sion, whether  in  or  outside  our  chambers.  One  of  our  officials 
is  a  little  caffiji.  He  was  promoted  from  the  position  of  coffee 
vender  in  the  alley  below  our  rooms,  where  he  lived  in  harmony 
with  the  dogs  which  were  born  beneath  the  escutcheon  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  kind  to  the  dumb  brutes,  and  it  was 
through  his  ministrations  that  a  dozen  of  them  lived  from  puppy- 
hood  to  maturity.  He  is  promoted  to  be  capouji,  or  door- 
keeper, when  the  messenger  and  Kavass  are  absent.  He  is  a  good 
Moslem.  His  salary  is  equal  to  seven  dollars  a  month,  but  that 
was  cut  off  by  our  ever-vigilant  First  Comptroller  and  Department 
of  State,  yet  we  had  not  the  heart  to  discharge  him.  He  desired 
to  be  married — again;  to  add  a  younger  lady  to  his  home.  He 
came  to  me  in  distress  for  a  couple  of  lira  turgue,  to  aid  his 
marital  desires.  This  was  bestowed.  The  Legation,  however,  is 
not  responsible  as  a  particeps  criminis  in  polygamy.  Besides, 
presents  are  made  to  him.  Does  he  not  assist  Mehmet  the  Kavass 
to  sustain  the  American  dignity  ?  When  assaulted  by  unjust, 
crazy  or  importunate  folk  who  call  on  us,  doth  not  his  eyes  snap 

373 


374 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


fire,  while  his  coffee  cools,  as  if  anxious  to  take  a  hand  in  vindi- 
cation of  the  magnificent  American  inter-territoriality,  though  it 
cuts  off  his  stipend  ? 

Let  me  instance  some  of  our  Diversions  when  all  the  members 
of  the  Legation  take  part  in  the  dramatic  performance  : 

With  wild  demonstrations,  after  the  manner  of  Orientals, 
except  the  Ottoman,  a  Greek  fisherman  seeks  reclamation,  in 
money,  for  the  destruction  of  his  nets  upon  the  Bosporus,  into- 
which  the  screw-propeller  of  our  launch  had  made  havoc.  It  was 
quite  a  comfort  to  know  that,  irrespective  of  rank,  it  was  possible 
to  plead  the  relation  of  a  Foreign  Minister  to  a  claim  founded  in 
the  wrong-doing  of  the  claimant  himself;  for  was  not  the  Bosporus 
our  easement,  our  own  waters,  under  the  law  of  nations  ?  And 
when  the  fisherman  gave  us  his  infernal  jabber,  had  we  not  two 
native  Moslem  guards  to  protect  our  sacred  person  ?  It  was  not 
Greek  meeting  Greek  about  our  tug,  but  Greek  and  Turk  con- 
tending. Thus,  in  our  subordinates,  we  find  safety  and  succor,, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  one  of  the  pleasantries  of  the  Legation. 

Another  pleasantry  is  occasioned  by  a  call  from  an  American- 
citizen  of  Greek  descent.  Whether  he  is  descended  from  Leoni- 
das  or  Themistocles  I  do  not  inquire;  probably  the  latter,  as  he 
has  much  to  do  with  fighting  the  marine  elements.  He  presents 
himself  and  his  case.  He  is  a  diver.  He  has  been  at  Chios,  old 
Homer's  isle.  While  diving  to  raise  a  vessel  in  the  harbor,  he  is 
arrested  by  the  authorities  for  illegally  diving  for  sponges.  He 
has  no  license.  He  is  jailed.  He  appeals  to  the  American  Csesar, 
i.  e.,  the  Legation.  It  hears  his  case  in  full  council.  As  he 
speaks  no  English,  little  French,  some  Turkish  and  much  modern 
Greek,  we  call  in  all  our  aids  to  assist  the  dragoman  to  interpret. 

"  Have  I  not  seen  you  before,"  I  ask  him,  after  his  complaints 
are  understood,  and  the  talk  takes  a  social  air. 

After  much  explanation  he  says: 

"Oui;    I  was  in  America." 

"Which  America?" 

"Nord!" 

"Bien!" 

*'  Ever  in  New  York  or  Washington  ?" 

"Oh!  oui,  oui,"  he  promptly  rejoms. 

"Do  you  ever  smoke?"  I  blandly  ask,  tendering  him  a 
cigarette.    He  smiles  a  fishy  smile  and  illumines  the  weed. 


376  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY, 

I  know  him  by  that  smile.  Dressed  in  spangled  tights,  and 
in  an  embroidered  Greek  jacket,  I  had  myself  seen  him  in  a 
tank,  under  water,  smoking. 

"  You  are  Kippapaporos,  the  famous  diver,  are  you  not?  " 

He  looks  surprised  and  pleased  at  the  recognition. 

"  You  are  the  man  who  drank  schnapps  under  water?  How 
are  you,  Kippapaporos  ? " 

He  becomes  at  once  genial,  and  in  his  muddled  style  tells  his 
troubles  in  the  Homeric  isle — all  over  again. 

I  ask  him  how  long  he  can  stay  under  water.  He  shows  us 
how  to  do  it.  He  clutches  his  nose  by  his  thumb  and  index 
finger,  and  gathers  into  his  capacious  chest  a  surplus  revenue  of 
atmosphere.  His  wheezy  noise  makes  the  Legation  tremble. 
The  dragoman  is  astounded,  the  capouji  alarmed  and  the  Kavass 
confounded. 

When  his  performance  is  over,  I  ask  for  his  passport,  as 
evidence  of  citizenship  and  as  warrant  for  our  protection.  But  it 
is  not  handy;  so  that  the  American  Caesar  cannot  intervene,  just 
now,  in  the  local  laws  as  to  the  classic  sponges;  not  even  for  a 
descendant  *of  Themistocles.  Besides,  he  complains  that  he  is 
impecunious.     He  must  have  help  or  starve. 

I  suggest  divers  modes  of  accumulation,  a  pun  he  never  sus- 
pects. 

"  Why  not  work  in  the  clear  waters  of  the  Bosporus,  raise  boats 
and  thus  raise  money  ?" 

He  acquiesces  and  leaves. 

Afterward  he  returns  to  say  that  he  has  had  a  job;  had  dived 
for  a  sunken  vessel  in  the  Bosporus,  but  could  not  make  more 
than  twenty  piastres  (a  dollar)  a  day,  and  he  had  a  family  to 
support. 

He  could  stay  under  water  nearly  as  long  as  a  porpoise,  with- 
out a  blow.  What  became  of  him  I  never  knew,  but  he  is  a  sam- 
ple which  diplomats  will  recognize  as  a  class  of  citizens  who 
belong  to  all  flags  and  are  really,  by  their  vagabond  life,  under 
none. 

What  singular  offices  diplomacy  has  sometimes  to  perform! 
Sitting  in  the  Legation  chambers  upon  a  beautiful  day  in  October, 
1885, 1  receive  from  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  State  a  cablegram, 
which  requires  me  to  look  up  Professor  Sterrit.  He  has  been 
lost  somewhere  in  Asia  Minor.     He   is  an  archaeologist,  and  his 


STRANGE  DIPLOMATIC  FUNCTIONS. 


\77 


friends  have  received  no  tidings  of  him  for  six  months.  He  had 
been  permitted  to  explore  the  valley  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
and  of  the  rivers  adjacent.  This  the  records  of  the  Legation 
show;  but,  becoming  sick,  he  drops  out  of  his  company,  and  is 
left  behind  at  his  own  request.  How  to  find  this  gentleman  is 
the  question. 

First,  I  inquire  at  the  Bible-house,  or  of  the  missionaries.  I 
strike  the  right  trail;  for  they  know  more  about  the  interior  of 
Asia  Minor  than  the  Turkish  officials,  and  are  willing  to  impart 
what  they  know.  Followmg  one  clue  after  another,  I  happen  to 
remember  Mr.  Haynes,  an  American,  who  has  been  in  the  com- 
pany of  Professor  Sterrit.  He  had  called  upon  us.  He  was  the 
photographer  of  the  expedition;  and,  welcome  news!  he  had  just 
received  a  letter  from  Professor  Sterrit  himself.  That  gentleman 
is  on  his  way  from  Smyrna  to  Athens.  The  anxiety  of  his  friends 
is  soon  relieved. 

I  mention  this,  not  so  much  to  show  the  functions  of  the 
Legation,  which  are  various  and  multiform,  but  to  refer  to  some 
strange  information  about  Asia  Minor  which  the  incident  indi- 
rectly furnished.  Mr.  Haynes  spent  a  day  with  us  at  Therapia. 
He  had  a  grip-sack  full  of  photographs,  and  the  most  interesting 
of  his  package  were  those  from  the  ruins  of  ancient  Cappadocia. 
I  venture  to  say  that  these  are  among  the  most  interesting  archs- 
ological  remains  of  that  country,  if  not  of  the  world.  They  are 
the  pictures  of  two  rock-hewn  cities.  Descriptions  have  been 
given  of  them  in  some  of  the  itineraries  of  Asia  Minor.  These 
ruins  are  in  a  valley,  like  our  canon.  They  are  upon  the  per- 
pendicular sides  of  the  mountains.  They  are  excavated  into 
a  great  number  of  chambers,  grottoes,  houses,  tombs  and  chapels 
of  the  Byzantine  age.  There  are  also  in  these  cafions  remarkable 
conical-pointed  hills.  They  follow  the  valley  so  closely  that  they 
are  almost  wedged  together.  They  are  not  hills  ;  and  whether 
they  are  natural  or  artifical  has  not  been  determined.  Most  prob- 
ably they  are  natural,  worn  by  the  rains  and  shaken  by  the  earth- 
quake. Mr.  Haynes,  who  visited  them,  says  that  he  was  almost 
lost  in  their  cones  and  pillars  of  rock.  There  are  miles  on  miles 
of  these  rocky  cones;  many  of  them  only  fifteen  feet  high,  others 
a  hundred,  and  some  three  hundred.  Some  are  crowned  with 
boulders,  which  would  indicate  that  time  had  eaten  away  most 
of  the  foundations  upon  which  they  rested.     In  the  interminable 


3  yS  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA T  IN  TURKEY. 

confusion,  they  seemed  like  some  great  and  ancient  city  which 
had  been  deserted,  and  had  been  so  carved  by  time  that  their 
strange,  fantastic  shapes,  like  the  rocks  I  have  seen  in  the  mount- 
ains of  Corsica,  suggested  every  animal  known  to  the  fauna  of 
science.  In  our  day,  when  traveling  has  become  so  easy,  luke- 
warm, and  almost  idle,  there  have  been  no  ample  descriptions 
written  of  these  remarkable  ruins.  Mr.  Haynes  has  promised  to 
supply  the  deficiency. 

Many  of  these  ruins  are  grottoes.  They  were  once  Greek 
chapels.  In  them  were  found  paintings  of  Christ,  the  Virgin  and 
the  apostles,  and  of  Bible  scenes.  The  pictures  are  well  preserved, 
and  some  of  them  well  done.  In  some  of  the  pictures  the  saints 
have  beautiful  scrolls  in  their  hands;  each  scroll  with  a  verse  of 
Scripture,  well  written  in  Greek.  Some  of  these  ruins  were  used 
as  mortuary  chapels.  Evidently  there  was  in  the  midst  of  these 
outre  towns  a  communistic  style  of  living.  This  is  indicated  by 
large  dining-halls.  The  passages  to  some  of  these  chambers  are 
through  narrow  holes,  so  small  as  to  lead  to  the  belief  that  they 
were  like  the  Zuni  caves  of  Arizona — fortifications  as  well  as 
homes;  for  in  the  upper  stories,  dedicated  to  the  women,  there 

was  evidence  that  no  ingress  was  possible  from  below. 

******* 

Travelers  who  have  been  in  Kurdistan,  and  who  have  trav- 
ersed its  high,  wild  land,  do  not  speak  with  much  fervor  about 
the  magnanimity  and  glory  of  its  inhabitants;  nor  is  its  cultivation 
a  matter  of  eulogy.  If  a  man  became  rich  in  that  country  by 
raising  handsome  crops,  it  was  tke  custom  of  the  government  to 
lay  on  him  the  heavy  hand  of  taxation.  When  the  Pasha  finds 
that  the  granary  of  the  farmer  is  full  of  stores  he  exclaims  : 

"  Mashallah  !  I  must  have  him.  Inshallah  !  I  will  force  him 
to  pay  well  for  his  misdeeds." 

Industry  has  no  hope  of  reward;  and,  therefore,  there  is  not 
much  content  in  Kurdistan;  and  yet  its  people  are  brave  and 
courageous. 

That  reminds  me  of  a  little  divertissement.  It  illustrates  the 
marauding  and  excursive  life  of  the  Kurds.  When  I  took  charge 
of  the  Legation,  I  found  a  case  pending  there  against  one  Moussa 
Bey.  Moussa  is  Moses.  But  he  was  not  a  law-givfer,  but  a  law- 
breaker. He  had  robbed  some  American  missionaries,  and  the 
stolen  property  was  traced  to  him.     He  had  done  worse :  he  had 


380  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

attempted  to  outrage  some  of  the  women  who  were  missionaries  in 
a  remote  district,  where  benevolence  had  been  bringing  forth  its 
fruits  in  vain  for  his  regeneration.  Before  I  had  reached  my  post, 
General  Wallace  had  tried  his  pious  and  diplomatic  skill  to  bring 
Moussa  to  punishment.  Many  promises  had  been  made,  but  the 
case  had  never  been  brought  up  or  determined.  No  indemnity 
could  be  had  against  him,  and  although  the  case  was  amply 
proven,  he  had  escaped  punishment.  I  happened  to  learn,  during 
my  prosecution  of  the  matter,  that  Moussa  had  been  actually 
promoted  from  a  lieutenant  or  lower  magistrate  to  the  higher 
post  of  mudir,  the  governor  of  a  kaza,  which  is  a  subdivision  of 
a  sanjak  ;  a  sanjak  being  a  subdivision  of  vilayet,  or  province.  I 
laid  this  new  matter  before  the  Porte — especially  before  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  who  himself  was  a  Kurd.  How 
Moussa  knew  that  the  American  people,  through  its  new  Minister, 
were  again  in  pursuit  of  him,  I  do  not  know;  but  word  came  to 
me  soon  afterward  from  the  missionaries  in  that  neighborhood, 
that  Moussa  Bey  had  purchased  a  Bible!  He  was  behaving  him- 
self with  wonderful  exemplariness — so  much  so,  that  the  mission- 
aries asked  that  he  might  not  be  pursued  any  further  at  present, 
as  everything  was  serene  in  his  district.  The  matter  of  the  rob- 
bery still  hangs  over  him.  His  hypocrisy  has  enured  to  the 
benefit  of  the  missionaries.  An  Irishman  would  exclaim  about 
him,  "  Holy  Moses!  " — for  he  affects  the  Christian  virtues,  if  he 
has  them  not  ! 

******* 
Some  of  the  Diversions  of  the  Legation  were  quasi  official. 
Among  them  was  one  occasioned  by  a  letter  written  from  Minne- 
sota. In  this  the  writer,  a  most  religious  reader  of  the  Bible, 
seriously  desired  to  know  whether  the  report's  were  true,  that  the 
Ark  had  been  found  imbedded  in  some  of  the  glaciers  on  Mount 
Ararat.  He  premised  his  inquiry  by  stating  that  Armenia  had 
been  divided  between  Turkey,  Russia  and  Persia,  but  that  Mount 
Ararat,  the  monumental  frontier  of  these  empires,  was  within  my 
jurisdiction  as  Minister.  He  hoped,  if  I  could  not  answer  the 
question  which  he  propounded,  so  as  to  confirm  the  Biblical 
account  of  the  Ark,  that  I  would  make  proper  inquiries  at  Ararat 
and  give  him  the  details  in  connection  with  the  animals  and 
other  paraphernalia  of  that  remarkable  vessel.  The  truth  is,  that 
Mount  Ararat  is  now   strictly   comprised  in  Russian  territory. 


ABOUT  ARARAT  AND  THE  ARK. 


381 


However,  it  is  still  a  great  object  of  reverence  among  the  smartest 
people  of  the  Orient — I  mean  the  Armenians. 

There  have  been  many  volcanic  and  other  excitations,  politi- 
cal and  social,  upheaving  and  disturbing  this  Armenian  country. 
In  fact,  the  whole  country  between  and  near  the  Euxine  and  the 
Caspian  shows  signs  of  volcanic  action,  as  well  as  of  petroleum.  It 
is  a  table-land  of  great  elevation.  It  has  its  sublime  mountains. 
Its  temperature  is  lower  than  that  of  other  regions  of  the  same 
parallel.  These  elements  give  to  it  a  peculiar  aspect  and  interest. 
They  fit  it  for  the  exhibition  of  some  wondrous  phenomena  like 
that  of  the  Deluge  and  the  Ark,  or  the  preservation  of  its  timbers 
and  fauna  amid  the  glaciers  of  the  mountain. 

I  have  no  report  to  make  as  to  this  request  of  the  pious  Ameri- 
can citizen.  I  made  no  inquiry  as  to  the  Ark.  It  was  not  within 
my  function.  I  never  happened  to  meet  a  tourist  who  had  visited 
the  highlands  there  in  search  of  nature  or  of  the  remnant  of  Noah's 
navy.  But  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  land  is  besieged  by 
sportsmen  and  naturalists,  for  the  various  kinds  of  birds  which 
feed  on  the  great  plain  of  Erzeroum.  The  flocks  are  so  prodig- 
ious as  almost  to  cover  the  earth  in  certain  seasons.  They  give  to 
the  ground  the  color  of  their  plumes.  Surely,  here  is  an  illus- 
tration, if  not  a  proof,  of  a  variety  of  one  class  of  animals  some- 
what confirmatory  of  the  scriptural  account  of  the  Deluge. 
******* 

Another  Diversion,  which  comes  near  home.  The  names  of 
the  dramatis  persona:  are  omitted: 

One  of  our  leading  generals,  and  a  man  who  had  been  high  in 
office  in  America,  had  been  presented  with  several  horses  by  the 
Sultan.  They  were  Arab  steeds  of  the  finest  breed.  There  were 
four  of  them.  The  dragoman  was  not  a  little  disconcerted,  when 
calling  at  His  Majesty's  stables  to  look  at  the  present,  to  observe 
that  one  of  the  steeds — a  fine  black  Arab — was  incurably  and 
chronically  lame.  Here  was  a  dilemma.  Could  he  send  a  lame 
horse  to  the  General  ?  He  will  not  disturb  the  amour  propre  of 
the  Sultan,  or  look  his  gift  horse  in  the  mouth  or  in  the  heel. 
What  does  he  do  ?  He  has  a  confabulation  with  the  Chief 
Chamberlain,  who  is  the  medium  of  communication  between  the 
Legations  and  the  Sultan.  After  expressions  of  thanks  for  the 
gift,  he  confidentially  mentions  that  the  gift  of  a  black  horse  is 
looked  upon  in  America  as  ominous.     Disaster  always  follows  its 


382  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

presentation.  Although  nothing  would  be  said  about  it,  of 
course,  on  the  reception  of  the  horse  in  America,  still,  would  it 
not  be  considered  sinister  to  present  a  horse  around  whose  color 
hung  such  associations  ?  It  is  needless  to  say  that,  in  the  out- 
come, the  black  horse  is  turned  out  to  pasture  and  a  splendid 
white  horse  presented  in  its  place. 

There  are  many  diverting  stories  which  only  the  reserve 
of  diplomacy  prevents  the  outside  world  from  enjoying.  One, 
which  I  have  recently  seen  in  print,  has  reference  to  the  dra- 
goman of  Lord  Ponsonby,  some  time  ago  British  Minister  at  the 
Porte.  He  desires  to  make  a  presentation  to  the  Sultan,  but 
being  a  man  of  leisurely  habits,  he  requests  his  dragoman  to 
translate  a  supposed  speech,  which  he  is  too  lazy  to  compose 
and  deliver.     The  humor  consists  in  this  : 

That  the  Minister,  to  save  his  own  labor,  is  solemnly  to  repeat 
in  English  the  arithmetical  numbers  from  one  up  to  sixty,  with  a 
grave  and  dignified  air.  The  dragoman  is  then  to  deliver  the 
speech  in  Turkish,  which  he  himself  should  commit  to  memory. 
The  affair  goes  off  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Porte.  The  Sultan 
responds  in  the  most  amiable  manner.  The  labor  of  the  head  of 
the  Legation  is  thus  considerably  lightened. 

During  my  incumbency  as  Minister,  I  am  happy  to  chronicle 
that  no  such  performance  as  that  of  my  Lord  Ponsonby  was  ever 
enacted  or  needed. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE   LOWER   BOSPORUS — THE    COSMOPOLITAN    AND    KALEIDOSCOPIC 
CITY — SCENES   AT   THE   BRIDGE. 

LvaDVNI  Batavorvjvi, 


CONSTANTINOPLE  IN  A.  D.    1632. 


It  matters  not  from  what  point  of  view  you  regard  this  city, 
it  has  no  peer.  Is  it  history  ?  It  is  the  rival  of  Rome.  Is  it 
art  ?  There  are  Greek  remains  here  and  hereabouts  which  thrice 
pulverize  the  classic  dust  of  Athens.  Is  it  physical  scenery  ? 
From  the  Semplegades  near  the  open  mouth  of  the  Euxineto  the 
Dardanelles,  there  are  perpetual  and  happy  surprises.  Is  it 
architecture  ?  St.  Sophia  has  the  spoil  of  all  temples,  the  strata 
of  all  geology,  and  the  graces  of  all  the  arts  of  Greece.  Is  it 
climate?  Dr.  Henry  Bennet,  of  Mentone — the  arbiter  on  health 
resorts — regards  the  Bosporus  as  the  place  of    all  others  for 

383 


384  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

salubrity.  Was  it  not  here  that  Medea  threw  away  her  poisonous 
drugs  and  grew  wild  in  heartiness  upon  ozone  ?  Is  it  not  here 
that  Therapia — which  is  philologically  cousin-german  to  Therapeu- 
tics— gives  her  breezes  to  cool  the  summer  heats,  and  her  moist- 
ure to  make  the  magnolia  and  rose  bloom  and  the  creeper  cling  ? 
Is  it  the  population  ?  Was  there  ever  such  a  composite  ?  Liter- 
ally, here  are  Romans  from  Roumania,  Scythians  from  Europe 
and  Asia,  Africans  from  the  Soudan,  Arabs  of  the  desert  from 
Damascus  to  Mount  Sinai,  Tartars  from  the  steppes,  Circassians 
from  the  mountains,  Greeks  from  the  isles,  Turks  from  the  inte- 
rior, Italians,  French,  Dutch,  Austrians,  English,  Germans,  Rus- 
sians, and,  in  fact,  all  peoples  from  the  mountains  and  plains  of 
Hungary,  and  the  "swamp  lands"  of  the  lower  Danube,  Bess- 
arabia and  the  Dobrudcha  to  "  silken  Samarcand  and  cedared 
Lebanon." 

Constantinople  is  not  a  new  city.  From  the  time  the  Greek 
merchants  from  Megara  chose  this  spot  as  the  seat  of  rule 
and  commerce,  she  has  been  a  factor  in  the  influences  for  good 
or  evil  which  follow  our  race  on  this  planet.  For  over  six  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ,  she  was  a  political  capital,  an  entrepot 
of  commerce,  and  a  strategical  point  in  the  conflicts  of  men  for 
empire  and  glory. 

The  leading  quality  which  determines  this  prominence  is  the 
geographical  situation.  Whether  this  situation  be  the  result  of 
internal  fires,  volcanic  upheavals,  or  shrinkage  of  the  earth's 
crust,  the  wonderful  Strait  is  the  grand  effect.  It  connects  two 
continents  and  two  seas.  It  is  this  which  gives  unity  and  suprem- 
acy. It  is  empire.  It  is  commerce.  It  is  locomotion  and  trans- 
portation— both  made  easy  by  waters  wonderfully  related  to  lands, 
and  the  genius  of  people  adapted  to  both.  By  the  Bosporus  the 
Black  Sea  is  bound  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  great  rivers  of 
Russia,  the  Caspian  and  Azof  seas,  as  well  as  all  the  coasts  which 
connect  with  them,  pour  their  tributary  values  into  this  unexam- 
pled emporium.  It  was  said  by  "Eothen,"  a  half  century  ago, 
that  England  had  then  planted  one  foot  on  Egypt  and  the  other 
upon  India — a  vast  span  of  the  insular  Colossus.  It  is  truer  now 
than  it  was  then  ;  but  the  nation  that  will  stand  here  to  overlook 
these  forming  elements  of  advancement  and  power  has  a  score  of 
Egypts  and  an  India  of  unrivaled  resources.  Two  continents 
furnish  a  pediment  for  such  a  Colossus.     Whether  it  be  Russian 


THE  WONDERFUL  SITE  OF  THE  WORLD.  385 

or  Greek,  Austrian  or  German  ;  whether  it  remain  Ottoman  or 
become  a  "  free  town" — here  the  image  stands,  with  its  emblems 
of  authority.  It  dominates  Asia,  Africa,  andalmost  Europe,  and 
with  a  power  to  move  armies  or  goods,  or  block  the  transportation 
of  both,  at  its  own  supreme  pleasure.  The  situation  is  such  that 
a  little  dynamite,  conveniently  handled  and  placed — not  the  thou- 
sandth part  of  that  which  blew  up  Hell  Gate — can  guard  it 
from  perilous  intrusion  against  the  nations  of  the  world. 

The  city  has  an  unparalleled  harbor.  It  is  tideless,  but  it  is  in 
perpetual  motion.  Its  beauty  enamours  the  eye,  and  its  resorts 
give  tonic  and  comfort.  Its  history  from  b.  c.  667 — almost 
coeval  with  the  foundation  of  Rome — to  this  year  of  the  Eastern 
Roumelian  revolution,  has  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the  -strangest 
romance,  but  the  climacteric  of  its  fascination  lies  in  the  eminence 
and  glory  of  its  situation,  which  is  the  procreant  cause  of  all 
its  marvels. 

Is  it  a  wonder,  therefore,  that  Persian,  Genoese,  Venetian, 
Greek,  Roman  and  Ottoman  have  contended  for  and  held  these 
places  of  interest,  opulence  and  power,  and  have  made  and  re- 
sisted sieges,  to  be  "  masters  of  the  situation  "?  Do  you  wonder 
that  Constantine  saw  here  a  greater  than  Rome,  and  sought  to 
realize  his  ideal  upon  yonder  Seraglio  Point,  where  the  Golden 
Horn,  with  its  cornucopia  of  wealth  kisses  the  Sea  of  Marmora, 
with  its  archipelago  of  loveliness  and  its  transport  of  azure  water  ? 
Few  relics  of  this  early  reign  remain  to  tell  of  the  splendor  of  old 
Byzantium.  The  brazen  column  of  triple  serpents  from  Delphos, 
some  aqueducts,  cyclopean  walls  of  massive  strength,  and  castles 
of  later  erection,  catch  and  detain  the  eye,  ever  here  on  the  out- 
look for  archasological  wonders.  But  this  city  lives,  moves  and 
has  Its  being  in  the  active  present.  It  is  not  of  the  dead  past 
altogether. 

Constantinople,  hke  Ronie,  is  situated  upon  seven  hills  ;  but 
opposite  Constantinople  proper,  or  Stamboul,  there  are  plenty  of 
hills.  They  almost  rise  to  the  dignity  of  mountains.  The  trav- 
eler who  lands  from  one  of  the  Black  Sea  or  Mediterranean  steam- 
ers, or  the  tourist  who  finds  himself  upon  the  Golden  Horn,  or 
the  bridge  which  crosses  it,  seeking  the  hotels  at  Pera,  will  find  a 
steep  ascent  to  overcome. 

When  I  visited  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  1851,  that  ascent  was 
never  overcome  by  means  of  carriages,  much  less  by  a  railway. 


t»86  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

For,  to  a  Turk  of  the  old  time,  encumbered  with  his  baggy 
breeches,  heavy  turban,  and  immense  sash,  there  is  a  great  deal 
of  specific  gravity  to  be  worked  off  before  he  rises  to  those 
heights  of  Pera  where  the  Europeans  dwell. 

The  hamals,  whom  we  meet  at  all  hours  of  the  day  bearing 
their  great  burdens  up  these  steeps,  and  the  donkeys  and  horses 
with  their  creels  upon  their  backs,  bearing  by  various  methods 
their  loads  of  stone,  timber  and  merchandise,  have  no  easy  ascent, 
especially  in  mid-summer. 

The  hatnal  is  generally  an  Armenian.  He  works  with  a  view 
to  a  release  from  hard  labor  after  a  few  years.  The  Turk  does 
not  work  on  this  line.  He  leaves  that  to  the  animal  and  to  the 
Armenian.  He  prefers  his  pipe,  or  his  black  coffee,  to  cultivating 
that  levity  which  overcomes  altitud?.  When  it  is  known  that 
the  streets  leading  from  the  Golden  Horn  to  the  heights  of  Pera 
are  crooked,  ill-paved,  narrow  and  filthy,  many  blessings  should  be 
showered  on  the  French  engineer  who  built  the  tunnel  by  which, 
with  the  aid  of  a  stationary  engine,  a  train  every  five  or  ten 
minutes  pulls  and  pushes  up  and  down  in  the  dark,  to  overcome^ 
by  the  aid  of  steam,  the  imminent  disadvantages  of  Pera. 

One  of  the  disillusions  of  the  stranger  in  Constantmople  comes 
upon  him  in  the  very  streets,  before  he  crosses  the  bridge  of  the 
Golden  Horn.  If  he  has  heard  that  the  Mahometan  is  ignorant 
as  well  as  bigoted,  and  that  he  does  not  read,  he  will  be  corrected. 
The  cries  of  the  newspaper  venders,  morning  and  evening,  are  as 
common  as  in  New  York.  At  the  leisure  hour,  in  all  the  shops, 
which  are  always  open,  you  should  see  how  many  are  engaged  in 
reading  the  newspaper.  There  is  scarcely  any  man  of  the  em- 
pire who  cannot  read  and  write.  Schools  are  as  common  as  the 
mosques.  The  very  disposition  of  the  Turk  leads  him  to  be  a 
reflective  reader.  Some  of  the  best  scholars  of  the  world  are 
those  with  large  Arabic  libraries,  who  pass  their  lives  in  their  liter- 
ary harems. 

Before  you  enter  upon  the  bridge,  sometimes  called  "  the  Sul- 
tana Valide,"  which  connects  Galata  with  Stamboul,  you  have 
to  pass  through  a  surging  crowd.  There  you  are  likely  to  be 
stranded  if  you  are  not  well  guarded.  Vehicles  and  beasts  of 
burden;  men  on  foot  and  on  horseback;  people  rushing  to  the 
ferry-boats  and  to  the  steamers  ;  pedlers  screaming  out  their 
wares;  stock-brokers  excited,  from  the  Exchange,  which  is  near 


STAMBOUL  BRIDGE  AND  ITS  THRONG.  387 

by — these  are  the  preliminaries  to  that  struggle,  before  you  reach 
the  man  who  takes  your  toll  when  you  are  fairly  upon  the  edge  of 
the  rugged  and  ricketty  bridge. 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  writers  who  are  dazed  with  Constanti- 
nople and  its  variety,  to  stand  on  the  Stamboul  bridge  and  look 
and  look,  and  wonder  and  wonder.  All  this  dual  city  passes  there. 
I  suggested  to  a  friend  to  have  a  photographer  who  takes  pictures 
instante,  to  stand  on  the  Stamboul  bridge  and  master  the  proces- 
sion by  his  sunlight  and  his  machine.  Of  course  I  did  not  include 
color  in  the  programme.  But  the  human  currents  had  already 
been  caught  in  the  endless  eddy  of  this  bridge.  Before  my 
suggestion  the  Italian  traveler,  De  Amicis,  had  already  made  a 
pen  picture  of  the  scene.  It  is  more  print-worthy  than  my  owa 
effort: 

"  The  crowd  passes  in  great  waves,  each  one  of  which  is  of  a 
hundred  colors,  and  every  group  of  persons  represents  a  new  type 
of  people.  Whatever  can  be  imagined  that  is  most  extravagant 
in  type,  costume,  and  social  class,  may  there  be  seen  within  the 
space  of  twenty  paces  and  ten  minutes  of  time.  Behmd  a  throng 
of  Turkish  porters,  who  pass  running  and  bending  under  enor- 
mous burdens,  advances  a  sedan-chair,  inlaid  with  ivory  and 
mother  of  pearl,  and  bearing  an  Armenian  lady;  and  at  either  side 
of  it  a  Bedouin  wrapfjed  in  a  white  mantle  and  a  Turk  in  muslm 
turban  and  sky-blue  caftan,  beside  whom  canters  a  young  Greek 
gentleman  followed  by  his  dragoman  in  embroidered  vest,  and  a 
dervish  with  his  tall,  conical  hat  and  tunic  of  camel's  hair,  who 
makes  way  for  the  carriage  of  a  European  ambassador,  preceded 
by  his  running  footman  in  gorgeous  livery.  All  this  is  only  seen 
in  a  glimpse,  and  the  next  moment  you  find  yourself  in  the  midst 
of  a  crowd  of  Persians,  in  pyramidal  bonnets  of  Astrakhan  fur, 
who  are  followed  by  a  Hebrew  in  a  long  yellow  coat  open  at  the 
sides;  a  frowsy-headed  gypsy  woman  with  her  child  in  a  bag  at 
her  back;  a  Catholic  priest  with  breviary  staff;  while  in  the  midst 
of  a  confused  throng  of  Greeks,  Turks  and  Armenians  comes  a 
big  eunuch  on  horseback,  crying  out  Larya!  (make  way),  and 
preceding  a  Turkish  carriage  pamted  with  flowers  and  birds,  and 
filled  with  the  ladies  of  a  harem,  dressed  m  green  and  violet,  and 
wrapped  in  large  white  veils;  behind,  a  Sister  of  Charity  from  the 
hospital  at  Pera,  an  African  slave  carrying  a  monkey,  and  a  pro- 
fessional story-teller  in  a  necromancer's  habit;  and  what  is  quite 


388  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

natural,  but  appears  strange  to  the  new-comer,  all  these  diverse 
people  pass  one  another  without  a  look,  like  a  crowd  in  London; 
and  not  one  single  countenance  wears  a  smile.  The  Albanian  in 
his  white  petticoat  and  with  pistols  in  his  sash,  beside  the  Tartar 
dressed  in  sheepskins;  the  Turk,  aside  of  his  caparisoned  ass, 
threads  pompously  two  long  strings  of  camels;  behind  the  adju- 
tant of  an  imperial  prince,  mounted  upon  his  Arab  steed,  clatters 
a  cart  filled  with  all  the  odd  domestic  rubbish  of  a  Turkish  house- 
hold; the  Mahometan  woman  afoot,  the  veiled  slave  woman,  the 
Greek  with  her  red  cap,  and  her  hair  on  her  shoulders,  the  Mal- 
tese hooded  in  her  hlacV  faldetta,  the  Hebrew  woman  dressed  in  the 
antique  costume  of  India,  the  negress  wrapped  m  a  many-colored 
shawl  from  Cairo,  the  Armenian  from  Trebizond,  all  veiled  in 
black  like  a  funeral  apparition,  are  seen  in  single  file,  as  if  placed 
there  on  purpose  to  be  contrasted. 

It  is  a  changing  mosaic  of  races  and  religions,  that  is  composed 
and  scattered  continually  with  a  rapidity  that  the  eye  can  scarcely 
follow.  It  is  amusing  only  to  look  at  the  passing  feet  and  see  all 
the  foot-coverings  in  the  world  go  by,  from  that  of  Adam  up  to 
the  last  fashion  in  Parisian  boots — yellow  Turkish  babouches,  red 
Armenian,  blue  Greek,  and  black  Jewish  shoes;  sandals,  great 
boots  from  Turkestan,  Albanian  gaiters,  low-cut  slippers,  leg 
pieces  of  many  colors,  belonging  to  horsemen  from  Asia  Minor, 
gold  embroidered  shoes,  Spanish  alporgatos,  shoes  of  satin,  of 
twine,  of  rags,  of  wood,  so  many,  that  while  you  look  at  one  you 
catch  a  glimpse  of  a  hundred  more.  One  must  be  on  the  alert 
not  to  be  jostled  and  overthrown  at  every  step.  Now  it  is  a 
water-carrier  with  a  colored  jar  upon  his  back;  now  a  Russian 
lady  on  horseback;  now  a  squad  of  imperial  soldiers  in  zouave 
dress,  and  stepping  as  if  to  an  assault;  now  a  crew  of  Armenian 
porters,  two  and  two,  carrying  on  their  shoulders  immense  bars, 
from  which  are  suspended  great  bales  of  merchandise;  and  now  a 
throng  of  Turks, who  dart  from  left  to  right  of  the  bridge  to  embark 
in  the  steamers  that  lie  there.  There  is  a  tread  of  many  feet,  a 
murmuring,  a  sound  of  voices,  guttural  notes,  aspirations  inter- 
jectional,  incomprehensible  and  strange,  among  which  the  few 
French  or  Italian  words  that  reach  the  ear  seem  like  lummous 
points  upon  a  black  darkness.  The  figures  that  most  attract  the 
eye  in  all  this  crowd  are  the  Circassians,  who' go  in  groups  of 
three  and  five  together,  with  slow  steps;  big  bearded  men  of  a 


THE  BRIDGE  AND  ITS  PEOPLE. 


;89 


terrible  countenance,  wearing  bear-skin  caps  like  the  old  Napol- 
eonic guard,  long  black  caftans,  daggers  at  their  girdles,  and  silver 
cartridge-boxes  on  their  breasts;  real  figures  of  banditti,  who 
look  as  if  they  had  come  to  Constantinople  to  sell  a  daughter  or 
a  sister — with  their  hands  embrued  in  Russian  blood.  Then  the 
Syrians,  with  robes  in  the  form  of  Byzantine  dalmatic,  and  their 
heads  enveloped  in  gold-striped  handkerchiefs  ;  Bulgarians, 
dressed  in  coarse  serge,  and  caps  encircled  with  fur;  Georgians, 
in  hats  of  varnished  leather,  their  tunics  bound  round  the  waist 
with  metal  girdles;  Greeks  from  the  Archipelago,  covered  from 
head  to  foot  with  embroidery,  tassels,  and  shining  buttons. 

From  time  to  time  the  crowd  slackens  a  little,  but  instantly 
other  groups  advance,  waving  with  red  caps  and  white  turbans, 
amid  which  the  cylindrical  hats,  umbrellas,  and  pyramidal  head- 
dresses of  Europeans,  male  and  female,  seem  to  float,  borne 
onward  by  that  Mussulman  torrent.  It  is  amazing  even  to  note 
the  variety  of  religions. 

The  shining  bald  head  of  the  Capuchin  friar,  the  towering 
Janizary  turban  of  an  Ulema,  alternate  with  the  black  veil  of  an 
Armenian  priest;  imaums  with  white  tunics,  veiled  nuns;  chaplains 
of  the  Turkish  army,  dressed  in  green,  with  sabres  at  their  sides; 
Dominican  friars,  pilgrims  returned  from  Mecca  with  a  talisman 
hanging  at  their  necks,  Jesuits,  dervishes;  and  this  is  very  strange. 
Dervishes  that  tear  their  own  flesh  in  expiation  of  their  sins,  and 
cross  the  bridge  under  a  sun-umbrella,  all  pass  by.  If  you  are 
attentive,  you  may  notice  in  the  throng  a  thousand  amusing  in- 
cidents. Here  it  is  a  eunuch,  showing  the  white  of  his  eye  at  a 
Christian  exquisite,  who  has  glanced  too  curiously  into  the  carriage 
of  his  mistress;  there  is  a  French  cocotte,  dressed  after  the  last 
fashion-  plate,  leading  by  the  hand  the  beloved  and  bejeweled  son 
of  a  pasha;  or  a  lady  of  Stamboul,  feigning  to  adjust  her  veil,  that 
she  may  peer  more  easily  at  the  train  of  a  lady  of  Pera;  or  a 
sergeant  of  cavalry  in  full  uniform,  stopping  in  the  middle  of  the 
bridge  to  blow  his  nose  with  his  fingers  in  a  way  to  give  one  a 
cold  chill;  or  a  quack,  taking  his  last  sous  from  some  poor  devii, 
and  making  a  cabalistic  gesture  over  his  face  to  cure  him  of  sore 
eyes;  or  a  family  of  travelers  arrived  that  day,  and  lost  in  the 
midst  of  a  throng  of  Asiatic  ruffians,  while  the  mother  searches 
for  her  crying  children,  and  the  men  make  way  for  them  by  dint 
of  squaring  their  shoulders.     Camels,  horses,  sedan-chairs,  oxen. 


390 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


carts,  casks  on  wheels,  bleeding  donkeys,  mangy  dogs,  form  a 
long  file  that  divides  the  crowd  in  half. 

Sometimes  there  passes  a  mighty  pasha  with  three  tails, 
lounging  in  a  splendid  carriage,  followed  by  his  pipe-bearer 
on  foot,  his  guard  and  one  black  slave,  and  then  all  the  Turks 
salute,  touching  the  forehead  and  breast,  and  the  mendicant 
women,  horrible  witches,  with  muffled  faces  and  naked  breasts, 
run  after  the  carriage  crying  for  charity.  Eunuchs  not  on  service, 
pass  in  twos  and  threes  and  fives  together,  cigarette  in  mouth,  and 
are  recognized  by  their  corpulence,  their  long  arms  and  their 
black  habits.  Little  Turkish  girls  dressed  like  boys,  in  green  full 
trousers  and  rose  or  yellow  vests,  run  and  jump  with  feline  agility, 
making  way  for  themselves  with  their  henna-tinted  hands.  Boot- 
blacks with  gilded  boxes,  barbers  with  bench  and  basin  in  hand, 
sellers  of  water  and  sweetmeats, cleave  the  press  in  every  direction, 
screaming  in  Greek  and  Turkish.  At  every  step  comes  glittering 
a  military  division,  officers  m  fez  and  scarlet  trousers,  their  breasts 
constellated  with  medals;  grooms  from  the  seraglio,  looking  like 
generals  of  the  army,  gendarmes,  with  a  whole  arsenal  at  their 
belts ;  zebecks,  or  free  soldiers,  with  those  enormous  baggy 
trousers  that  make  them  resemble  in  profile  the  Hottentot  Venus; 
imperial  guards  with  long  white  plumes  upon  their  casques  and 
gold-bedizened  breasts;  city  guards  of  Constantinople,  as  one 
might  say,  required  to  keep  back  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  The  contrasts  between  all  this  gold  and  all  those  rags, 
between  people  loaded  down  with  garments,  looking  like  walking 
bazaars,  and  people  almost  naked,  are  most  extraordinary.  The 
spectacle  of  so  much  nudity  is  alone  a  wonder.  Here  are  to  be 
seen  all  shades  of  skin-colors,  from  the  milky- whiteness  of  Albania 
to  the  crow-blackness  of  central  Africa  and  the  bluish-blackness 
of  Darfur;  chests  that  if  you  struck  upon  them  would  resound 
like  a  huge  bass  or  rattle  like  pottery;,  backs,  oily,  stony,  full  of 
wrinkles,  and  hairy  like  the  back  of  a  wild  boar;  arms  embossed 
with  red  and  blue,  and  decorated  with  designs  of  flowers  and  in- 
scriptions from  the  Koran.  But  it  is  not  possible  to  observe  all 
this  in  one's  first  passage  over  the  bridge.  While  you  are 
examining  the  tattoo  on  an  arm,  your  guide  warns  you  that  a  Wal- 
lachian,  a  Servian,  a  Montenegrin,  a  Cossack  of  the  Don,  a 
Cossack  of  Ukraine,  an  Egyptian,  a  native  of  Tunis,  a  prince  of 
Jmerezia,  is  passing  by.    It  seems  that  Constantinople  is  the  same 


RUG  PEDLER. 


TURCOMAN. 


39« 


392  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

as  it  always  was — the  capital  of  three  continents  and  the  queen 
of  twenty  vice-realms.  But  even  this  idea  is  insufficient  to  account 
for  the  spectacle,  and  one  fancies  a  tide  of  emigration  produced 
by  some  enormous  cataclysm  that  has  overturned  the  antique 
continent. 

An  experienced  eye  discerns  still  among  the  waves  of  that 
great  sea  the  faces  and  costumes  of  Caramania  and  Anatolia,  of 
Cyprus  and  Candia,  of  Damascus  and  Jerusalem,  the  Druse,  the 
Kurd,  the  Maronite,  the  Croat,  and  others — innumerable  varieties 
of  all  the  anarchical  confederations  which  extend  from  the  Nile 
to  the  Danube,  and  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Adriatic.  Seekers 
after  the  beautiful  or  the  horrible  will  here  find  their  most  auda- 
cious desires  fulfilled;  Raphael  would  be  in  ecstasies,  and  Rem- 
brandt would  tear  his  hair.  The  purest  types  of  Greek  and  Cau- 
casian beauty  are  mingled  with  flat  noses  and  woolly  heads; 
queens  and  fairies  pass  beside  you;  lovely  faces,  and  faces  de- 
formed by  disease  and  wounds;  monstrous  feet,  and  tiny  Circas- 
sian feet  no  longer  than  your  hand;  gigantic  porters,  enormously 
corpulent  Turks,  and  black  sticks  of  skeleton  shadows  of  men 
that  fill  you  with  pity  and  disgust — every  strangest  aspect  in  which 
can  be  presented  the  ascetic  life,  the  abuse  of  pleasure,  extreme 
fatigue,  the  excess  of  opulence  and  the  misery  that  kills.  Who 
loves  colors  may  here  have  his  fill.  No  two  figures  are  dressed 
alike.  Here  are  shawls  twisted  around  the  heads,  savage  fillets, 
coronets  of  rags,  skirts  and  under-vests  in  stripes  and  squares  like 
harlequins,  girdles  stuck  full  of  knives  that  reach  to  the  arm-pits. 
Mameluke  trousers,  short  drawers,  skirts,  togas,  trailing  sheets, 
coats  trimmed  with  ermine,  vests  like  golden  cuirasses,  sleeves 
puffed  and  slashed,  habits  monkish  and  habits  covered  with  gold 
lace,  men  dressed  like  women,  and  women  that  look  like  men; 
beggars  with  the  port  of  princes,  a  ragged  elegance,  a  profusion 
of  colors,  of  fringes,  tags,  and  fluttering  ends  of  childish  and 
theatrical  decorations,  that  remind  one  of  a  masquerade  in  a  mad- 
house, for  which  all  the  old-clothes  dealers  in  the  universe  have 
emptied  their  stores.  Above  the  hollow  murmur  that  comes  from 
this  multitude  are  heard  the  shrill  cries  of  the  sellers  of  news- 
papers in  every  tongue;  the  stentorian  shout  of  the  porters,  the 
giggling  laugh  of  Turkish  women,  the  squeaking  voices  of  eunuchs, 
the  falsetto  trill  of  blind  men  chanting  verses  of  the  Koran,  the 
noise  of  the  bridge  as  it  moves  upon  the  water,  the  whistles  and 


-.1-11    Wu.M 


kLKDl.^H    \'.  .■■,■.  a:.     1 


394 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


bells  of  a  hundred  steamers,  whose  dense  smoke  is  often  beaten 
down  by  the  wind  so  that  you  can  see  nothing  at  all.  All  this 
masquerade  of  people  embarks  in  the  small  steamboats  that  leave 
every  moment  for  Scutari,  for  the  villages  of  the  Bosporus,  and 
the  suburbs  of  the  Golden  Horn;  they  spread  through  Stamboul, 
in  the  bazaars,  in  the  mosques,  in  the  suburbs  of  Fanar  and 
Galata,  to  the  most  distant  quarters  on  the  Sea  of  Marmora;  they 
swarm  upon  the  Frankish  shore,  to  the  right  toward  the  Sultan's 
palace,  to  the  left  toward  the  higher  quarters  of  Pera,  whence 
they  fall  again  upon  the  bridge  by  the  innumerable  lanes  that 
wind  about  the  sides  of  the  hills;  and  thus  they  bind  together 
Asia  and  Europe,  ten  cities  and  a  hundred  suburbs  in  one  mighty 
net  of  labor,  intrigue  and  mystery,  before  which  the  mind  becomes 
bewildered." 

But  I  must  resume  to  say  : 

If  you  leave  the  bridge  and  go  up  the  hill  to  Pera  you  are 
saluted  by  the  same  cosmopolitan  noises  and  groups.  A  Turkish 
porter  cries  out  : 

"  Get  out  of  the  way  of  the  street-car!  " 

A  donkey  driver  halloos,   "  Barada  !" 

Newspapers  in  Greek,  Turkish,  French,  English,  Armenian, 
and  some  of  several  tongues  in  one  pentecostal  edition,  make 
that  end  of  the  bridge  noisy  with  their  cries  and  trade. 

The  grand  bazaar  is  also  a  medley  and  motley  microcosm. 
Indian,  Syrian,  Arabian  and  Egyptian  goods  of  every  grade  of 
value,  beauty  and  style  are  sold  by  polyglotical  merchants  of 
unconscionable  modes.  This  city,  in  fine,  is  the  epitome  of  the 
whole  Orient,  and  the  bazaar  is  a  sample  of  the  city.  If  the  latter 
be  a  camp — a  fair — a  bewildering  variety  of  transient  edifices, 
with  kiosks,  lattices,  tombs,  palaces,  balconies,  churches,  mosques, 
trees,  facades,  arches,  bridges,  and  fragments  and  bits  of  form 
and  hue,  the  bazaar  itself  is  an  artful  combination  of  all  that 
selfish  skill  can  put  together  to  gratify  the  taste,  passions  and 
comforts  of  men  of  Eastern  mold. 

What  a  cosmos  has  this  strange  government  of  suzerainty 
made  out  of  the  chaos  of  defunct  and  changing  dynasties  and 
empires!  Do  you  want  to  study  institutions?  Here  is  your 
ground  of  vantage.  Not  only  is  the  Sultan  here  the  lord  and 
master,  doing  all  things  absolutely,  but  he  allows  a  clever  com- 


THE  GENIUS  OF  THE  BOSPORUS. 


395 


pany  of  Arab  scholars  to  interpret  the  law  according  to  Mahomet 
and  the  Koran.  But  that  interpretation  is  subject  to  the  old  rule 
of  his  grandfather,  Mahmoud  II.,  and  that  is: 

If  the  Ulemas  do  not  interpret  the  law  according  to  the  Sul- 
tanic  will,  they  are  to  be  pounded  to  death  in  a  (metaphorical) 
mortar. 

Things  are  greatly  changed  since  the  Janizaries  were  mas- 
sacred. With  some  exceptions  toleration  is  the  rule  at  the  capi- 
tal. Still,  some  brutal  bey  or  pestiferous  pasha  in  the  remote 
interior  makes  havoc  of  an  indiscreet  American  peripatetic  teacher 
or  preacher.  When  such  things  happen,  the  American  bird  tries 
to  scream,  but  she  is  so  far  away  from  home  that  she  is  literally 
a  cowardly  fowl,  and  cannot  even  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  vociferous 
and  protesting  crow. 

It  is  impossible  to  tell,  except  by  iterative  intensity,  the  weird 
and  wonderful  genius  of  the  sky,  seas  and  soil  of  this  old  capital 
and  its  environs.  That  which  makes  it  most  interesting,  and 
which  makes  and  determines  its  troubles  and  trials — social,  eth- 
nographical, religious,  military  and  political — is  its  unparalleled 
situation.  I  have  compared  it  with  New  York,  but  it  is  far  more 
superb  in  picturesque  scenery  and  commercial  advantages.  Com- 
pared with  old  Jerusalem,  it  is  more  active  and  varied,  if  not  more 
pliant  and  potent,  in  its  religious  teachings.  Compared  with 
London,  its  throngs  of  people  that  swarm  in,  around  and  over  the 
bridges  of  the  Golden  Horn,  between  Pera  and  Scutari,  and  the 
city  of  Stamboul  proper,  who  come  and  go  on  steam  ferries  up  and 
down  the  Straits  and  across  into  Asia  and  along  the  shores  of 
Marmora,  it  is,  at  least,  more  interesting,  if  not  so  populous. 
Compared  with  ancient  Athens,  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  teacher 
in  art  or  philosophy,  but  in  early  and  mediaeval  history,  as 
the  Greek  Byzantium,  Constantinople  appreciated,  preserved  and 
circulated  what  Greece  had  provided  for  the  instruction  and 
delight  of  our  kind.  Compared  with  Paris,  there  is  no  luxury 
— from  a  bouffe  song  and  dance  in  a  cafd  chantant  to  the  Italian 
opera  on  the  Grand  rue,  from  the  wild  music  of  the  Mediterranean, 
as  old  in  its  monotone  as  the  pyramids,  to  the  thunder  of  the  old 
epic  upon  classic  and  rocky  shores — which  this  unique  and  com- 
posite city  has  not.  Here  absolute  power  lives  with  its  many 
wives,  eunuchs  and  odalisques.  Private  liberty  is  without  much 
restraint  under  the  shadow  of  autocratic  power. 


396  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  Sultan  enacts  over  again  the  role  of  an 
ancient  Persian  king,  I  can  only  point  to  the  proprieties  of  his 
court  and  the  reserve  of  his  domesticities.  These  do  not  occasion 
any  of  the  scandals  of  the  London  divorce  courts  or  the  ostenta- 
tious libertinism  of  the  French  and  German  capitals.  If  it  be  said 
that  polygamy  is  practised,  may  it  not  be  well  to  scrutinize  the 
laws  and  customs  of  Mohametan  marriage  ?  If  it  be  said  that 
Mahomet  was  an  impostor  and  that  Christianity  is  its  foe,  would 
it  not  be  well  to  study  more  carefully  the  kinds  of  Christianity 
which  obtain  in  the  East  ?  Certainly,  one  great  virtue  shines  in 
the  Moslem  faith.  It  tolerates  no  imagery  made  in  the  likeness 
of  Saint  or  God.  It  consults  the  rituals  of  every  faith,  and  I 
doubt  if  the  reader  will  find  so  spiritual  a  recognition  of  the 
Unity  and  greatness  of  the  Deity  as  that  revealed  in  the  prayers 
of  the  Moslem. 

I  have  heard  in  the  chapel  of  the  British  Embassy  prayers 
quite  as  fervent  and  sincere  as  those  of  the  Moslem  to  Allah  ; 
and  among  the  rest,  one  which  is  printed  in  the  English  Episcopal 
Prayer-book,  which  beseeches  the  Christians'  God — for  the  safety, 
preservation  and  succor  of  the  Sultan,  who  is  the  Caliph  of  the 
Mahometan  religion. 

Let  me  not  be  drawn  from  my  present  object.  I  was  endeav- 
oring to  describe  the  bridge  over  the  Golden  Horn.  Its  aspect  is 
awkward.  It  rests  on  iron  buoys,  and  although  not  as  graceful 
as  the  Rialto,  it  is  a  significant  structure,  for  it  is  a  bridge  between 
two  civilizations.  It  is  really  a  bridge  between  Asia  and  Europe; 
between  twenty  years  of  Europe  and  a  cycle  of  Asia.  If  it 
were  not  an  anachronism,  I  would  wonder  if  Addison  took  his 
"Vision  of  Mirza"  from  this  bridge.  What  motley  groups 
stand  and  what  individual  oddities  pass  between  noisy,  busy, 
bustling  Pera  and  the  stately,  serious  and  silent  Stamboul  ! 
Every  nation  and  every  tribe  are  represented  :  Soldiers  that 
are  of  every  uniform;  Persians  from  Astrakhan  going  to  the 
Persian  Embassy,  where  Mochsin  Khan,  the  minister  of  Persia, 
rules  as  if  in  his  own  territory  for  his  own  Shah;  Prank- 
ish diplomats  and  adventurers,  passing  carriages  in  which  are 
beauties  of  henna-stained  fingers  and  painted  eye-lashes  and 
brows,  veiled  to  give  the  eye  its  glance  of  danger;  Jews  in  black 
dress  and  solemn  turban,  more  Oriental  than  the  Turk  himself; 
Armenian  priests  with  dark  robes  and  square  caps,  repeating  as 


AKAli    IK.  iM     ]    \     HAD. 


397 


398  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

they  walk  their  orisons  over  sandalwood  rosaries;  a  dervish  nearly 
as  naked  as  Adam  before  the  fall,  looking  as  if  in  hopeless  chaos,, 
with  limbs  lank  for  lack  of  food;  gesturing  Italians;  screaming^ 
people  from  the  Greek  isles  ;  grim  and  lofty  Arabs  ;  pistoled  and 
yataghaned  Nubians,  black  as  a  starless  night,  some  of  whom  are 
tall,  slim,  long-armed  and  long-legged  eunuchs  and  slaves;  and 
to  crown  all,  the  Turkish  pasha  in  tasseled  fez,  and  frock  coat  as 
coUarless  as  that  of  a  Methodist  presiding  elder,  and  as  clean  as 
the  razor  can  shave  him,  except  the  fine  moustache;  water-car- 
riers, and  firemen  on  a  run  with  unearthly  shrieks  ;  all  in  bustle 
and  confusion,  and  all  intent  and  active  as  a  crowd  in  old  Broad- 
way. 

The  soldiers  here  make  the  bravest  aspect  of  themselves  and 
their  uniforms.  This  is  one  reason  why  the  Turks  seem  most 
numerous,  and  why,  being  sent  to  the  wars,  they  are  not  growing 
in  population  as  the  Christians,  who  do  not  go  to  war.  The 
description  given  during  the  Crimean  War  of  the  Turkish  soldier 
is  true  to-day.  Though  ill-fed,  and  worse  paid,  he  is  ever  devout 
upon  his  prayer-carpet  as  it  is  turned  Mecca-ward.  He  is  power- 
ful in  physique,  high  of  feature  and  brawny  of  limb.  He  is 
sprung  from  generations  of  warriors  which  once  threatened  to  over- 
whelm the  whole  Western  world  in  a  tide  that  has  long  since  been 
at  its  ebb.  Patient  of  hardship,  devoted  to  the  Sultan  and  to  duty, 
with  a  fierce  and  dogged  resolution  and  childish  obedience  and 
simplicity,  he  is  the  model  of  a  soldier,  and,  so  far  as  I  have 
observed,  of  courtesy  and  gentleness.  If  Greece  or  any  other 
nation  presumes  to  try  the  wager  of  battle  with  him,  as  he  is  now 
armed,  it  will  go  hard  with  the  Turkish  enemy.  The  Turkish 
soldier  is  a  peasant  at  home;  and  when  soldiering,  he  is  not 
always  a  Bashi-bazouk,  or  the  swaggering  rowdy,  as  he  is  often 
described. 

"Some  kind  casuists  are  pleased  to  say,"  once  remarked  a 
Mahometan  to  me,  "  that  I  have  no  devotion ;  but  set  those 
persons  down  with  me  to  pray,  and  you  shall  see  who  has  the 
properest  notion." 

Substitute  "motion,"  and  the  Turk  will  outdo  the  Christian 
ten  to  one.  Some  one  has  calculated  the  motions  of  his  body 
per  diem.  It  gives  him  healthy  exercise  and  grace  of  manner, 
besides  a  good  conscience. 

I  am  not  aware  of  any  hostility  existing  now  between  cer- 


WAibk    irLuLLK. 


PLATE  MERCHANT. 


399 


400 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


tain  sects  of  Christians  and  the  Mahometan.  If  any,  it  has  been 
fostered  by  influences  outside  of  this  city.  The  Mahdi's  cam- 
paign in  Egypt  is  an  illustration  o^  the  olden  power  of  faith  and 
the  sword.  The  enmity,  to  which  I  have  adverted,  to  the  exten- 
sion of  Protestant  and  Catholic  schools,  churches  and  influences 
is  not  of  such  bitter  hostility  as  that  of  the  anti-Semitic  Germans, 
Austrians  and  Russians  against  the  Jews.  Its  bitterness  has  not 
risen  to  the  dignity  of  religious  bigotry.  It  is  not  a  demonstration 
of  unthrifty  envy  versus  industrial  providence.  Nor  does  it  spring 
so  much  from  fear  of  Moslem  apostacy  or  proselytism  by  other 
religionists.  There  is  no  fear  of  that  in  Turkey.  The  Turk  smiles 
— he  does  not  laugh — at  all  attempts  at  propagandism.  Not  fifty 
Moslem  converts  have  appeared  in  as  many  years.  But  with  the 
spread  of  education,  through  American  and  other  auspices,  he 
fears,  almost  without  the  courage  to  tell  it,  that  a  new  political 
state  or  social  order  may  arise  within  some  parts  of  his  empire, 
having  its  seat  either  in  Judea  or  Syria,  Beirut  or  Jerusalem. 

Upon  this  clear  morning  in  mid-winter,  upon  a  May-like  day, 
from  my  balcony  I  can  see  the  snow-topped  heights  of  the  Mysean 
Olympus.  From  yonder  melting  snows  the  Sangarius  flows 
to  the  Euxine.  Upon  its  banks  a  few  hundred  nomads,  a  few 
hundred  years  ago,  from  central  Asia,  bivouacked.  From  a 
few  hundred,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  force  now  potential  among 
two  hundred  millions  of  people — a  religion  with  a  cimeter — they 
conquered,  four  hundred  and  thirty-four  years  ago, -the  finest 
spot  for  capitalizing  commerce  and  energizing  empire,  existing 
upon  this  planet.  Without  the  arts  of  Greece  or  the  eagles  of 
Rome,  this  Seljukian  family  of  Turks  mastered  many  of  the  ways 
and  means  which  enable  dynasties  to  hold  what  is  taken.  This 
sway  was  crystallized  as  well  by  the  personal  qualities  of  Osman, 
the  Romulus  of  the  empire,  as  by  acts  of  toleration  and  mod- 
eration in  matters  of  tax,  conscription,  land-tenure,  citizenship 
and  religion.  The  institutions  of  this  empire  were  greater  than 
the  personnel  of  the  Ottoman. 

Broussa,  which  now  sits  like  an  Eastern  queen  in  her  silken 
array  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Olympus,  became  the  first  capital  of 
these  Turkish  rulers.  But  Broussa  was  the  threshold  only  to  this 
superb  throne  of  Constantinople.  Forty  years  before  Columbus 
found  the  new  hemisphere,  the  Greek  empire  fell  before  this  re- 
markable power.    It  fell  without  much  contest  for  its  sustentation. 


IS  TURKEY  DECLINING ? 


401 


It  was  not  so  much  the  Moslem  faith  nor  the  standing  army  of 
Janizaries,  trained  with  skill,  recruited  with  Christian  youth,  and 
uniformed  compactly,  nor  the  personal  attachment  of  this  race  to 
its  rulers,  that  enabled  this  new  power  to  sweep  from  the  Euphra- 
tes to  the  Adriatic  and  from  the  Nile  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules. 
The  solution  is  found  in  the  division  of  power  and  employment. 
The  local  government  with  its  cadi  (or  mayor)  and  council  of 
notables,  was  never  lost  sight  of,  even  in  the  ambitions  of  foreign 
conquest.  The  lands  which  were  conquered  were  saved  for  till- 
age and  grazing.  All  who  came  to  the  mosque  received  mercy. 
Slaves  were  freed  and  goods  restored.  The  rule  was  one  of  law, 
and  in  the  clangor  of  arms  its  voice  was  not  hushed. 

The  Christian  people  of  the  conquered  territory  were  as  much 
the  devotees  of  superstition  and  rites  as  were  the  heathen  who 
worshipped  the  sun  or  fire.  Byzantium  was  a  pagan  place  before 
Mahometanism  destroyed  its  images  and  razed  its  temples.  It  is 
thought  that  the  fall  of  Byzantium  was  a  calamity  to  the  world- 
Its  existence  certainly  was  not  a  blessing. 

There  never  was  a  time  when  Mahometanism  could  have  con- 
quered and  held  Europe.  Its  lodgment  even  in  Spain  was  dis- 
puted for  seven  hundred  yqars.  There  was  a  perpetual  barrier 
against  it,  as  well  by  Alpine  ranges  as  by  chivalric  courage. 

It  is  doubtful  if  Turkey  is  now  advancing.  Her  doctrine  of 
"  Kismet "  is  applicable  to  her  condition.  The  Christian  people 
of  her  empire  are  gaining  uix)n  the  Turkish.  War,  plague  and 
contention  in  and  out  of  Europe — in  Africa  as  well  as  in  Europe 
— have  limited  her  boundaries  and  undermined  her  old  and  hardy 
constitution. 

Why  this  unique  empire,  with  its  relics  of  polygamy  and 
slavery,  should  decay,  is  not  so  difficult  a  problem  as  why  it  has 
grown  in  four  centuries  to  be  such  a  power  that  the  great  land 
animal,  Russia,  pauses  before  it  lays  its  claws  upon  this  capital. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE  CAIQUES  OF  THE  BOSPORUS. 

My  countrymen  who  visit  the  National  Museum  at  Washington 
will  perceive  a  strange  boat  from  the  Orient.  It  is  known  m  the 
waters  of  the  Bosporus  as  a  caique,  and  in  the  Turkish  tongue, 
from  which  it  is  derived,  as  a  caik.  The  Yankee  boatmen  laughed 
at  its  Oriental  workmanship,  with  its  hull  of  tulip  wood,  battened 
on  the  inside  with  small  blocks  of  wood  and  deluged  with  pitch; 
but  he  could  not  understand  its  utility  or  was  not  enamored  of  its 
beauty.  For  its  size — thirt3'--five  feet  long,  with  only  a  weight  of 
340  pounds — it  was  a  marvel  among  boats  when  I  rode  in  it  upon 
the  Bosporus.  May  I  not  say  something  further  about  its  utilities 
and  graces  ? 

The  boat  belonged,  to  the  American  Legation.  It  was  pur- 
chased many  years  ago  with  United  States  money.  It  has  often 
been  repaired  since.  It  has  served  the  purpose  of  a  Legation  boat 
before  steam  became  a  niotor  upon  the  Bosporus.  It  was  only 
used  in  good  weather,  when  the  Legation  was  situated  up  the 
Straits,  and  for  purposes  which  the  launch  granted  by  Congress 
now  supplies. 

There  are  pleasing  associations  with  it  enjoyed  by  my  prede- 
cessors, as  well  as  by  myself.  Upon  one  occasion,  I  rigged  up 
this  six-oared  caique,  to  cross  the  Bosporus,  with  a  view  to  pene- 
trating into  the  interior,  a  mile  or  so  along  the  "Sweet  Waters 
of  Asia."  One  of  the  incidents  of  this  trip  into  Asia  was  a  visit 
to  the  various  potteries  on  the  shore  of  the  sweet  little  stream. 
Halting  our  boat  before  one  of  the  potteries,  we  are  attracted 
by  a  low  musical  chant.  Having  along  our  Dalmatian  servitor, 
Pedro,  we  halt  to  examine  the  potteries  and  listen  to  the  chant. 
The  chanteur  is  intoning  from  the  Koran.  He  shrewdly  keeps 
one  eye  upon  us,  as  we  are  strangers.  Not  being  his  prayer 
time,  he  is  not  quite  so  ceremonious  as  usual.  Directly  he 
stops  his  intoning,    I^  ask  with  respect,  through  Pedro,    that   I 


BUYING  THE  KORAN. 


403 


may  see  his  Koran.  It  is  an  old  volume,  badly  worn.  It  once 
had  signs  of  gilt  on  the  outside.  It  had  a  cover  of  morocco,  once 
beautiful.  Inside,  it  was  ornamented  with  bits  of  gold  leaf  for 
periods,  or  pauses  in  prayers.  It  had  many  illustrations,  all  giv- 
ing quite  a  picturesque  quality  to  the  book.  In  the  frontispiece, 
which,  Celtic-like,  is  at  the  end,  there  is  the  Crescent  and  the  Star. 
The  first  page — where  we  have  our  "  Finis  " — is  like  an  illumi- 
nated missal  in  purple,  and  with  various  exquisite  arrangements 
-of  line  and  script.  These  show  that  the  book  had  once  been  of 
value.     I  ask  the  owner  : 

"Will  you  sell  the  book  ?  " 

This  is  in  derogation  of  law  and  custom.  The  owner  shrinks 
from  the  negotiation.  However,  after  much  talk,  I  obtain  his 
confidence.  With  a  little  persuasion  on  the  part  of  his  brother 
workmen,  who  are  unbelieving  Greeks,  and  who  gather  about 
him,  he  gives  a  hesitating  acquiescence  and  remarks  : 

**  I  would  like  to  know  how  much  you  will  give  for  it  ?  " 

I  ask,  Yankee-fashion,  "  How  much  will  you  take  ? " 

He  ponders  long.  He  looks  within  the  cover,  as  if  loth  to 
part  with  his  consoling  companion  and  says  : 

*•  It  is  worth  two  mejidi^s,  is  it  not?" 

That  is  about  two  dollars.  I  leap  for  the  book.  I  have  the 
silver  ready,  jingling  it  under  the  potter's  eye.  Am  I  too  quick  ? 
He  turns  to  his  companions,  and  as  Pedro  interprets  it,  he  says  : 

*'  I  fear  that  these  people  are  spying  on  me.  They  are  detect- 
ives, perhaps.     They  may  arrest  me  for  the  sale." 

It  requires  some  diplomacy  to  mollify  and  conciliate  him.  But 
I  had  set  my  heart  on  the  acquisition,  and  I  feared,  like  the  classic 
female,  Cassandra,  that  he  might  raise  the  price  at  each  refusal  to 
clinch  the  bargain.     I  ask  : 

' '  Where  are  you  from  ? " 

"  From  the  city  of  Scutari  in  Albania." 

"  Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  write  your  name  in  the 
book  ? " 

This  he  does  with  a  pencil  at  the  end  of  the  book.  His  name 
is  Bairam.  Whether  named  after  the  festive  season  or  not,  I  do 
not  inquire.  He  is  not  a  jolly  person,  although  he  bears  a 
happy  name. 

He  then  commences  again,  intoning  piously  some  of  the  verses, 
to  which   he   longingly  opens.     Then  casting  his  eyes   on   the 


404  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

mejidids,  he  delivers  over  the  precious  volume  to  my  wife.  This 
was  on  the  23d  of  October,  1885,  on  the  Moslem  Sunday,  which 
is  on  Friday.  I  still  retain  the  volume,  as  one  of  the  curious  souve- 
nirs of  my  religious  invasion  of  Asia,  of  my  visit  to  the  "  Sweet 
Waters ' '  and  of  the  elegant  caique,  now  naturalized  m  America. 
Besides,  there  is  the  association  with  Bairam,  the  gentle  child  of 
Mahomet.     His  shrewd  piety  will  not  be  forgotten. 

What  singular  attachments  these  religionists — even  from  the 
shores  of  the  Adriatic,  and  almost  beyond  the  borders  of  Greece — 
still  retain  for  the  Islam  of  their  fathers!  Perhaps  this  man  had  in 
him  the  blood  of  those  Moslems  of  the  mountains  of  Albania,  so 
celebrated  for  prowess  and  endurance  in  the  time  of  Scanderbeg^ 
or  of  those  noted  in  the  Suliote  war  under  Ali  Pasha. 

When  I  first  saw  Constantinople,  thirty-six  years  ago,  there 
were  eighty  thousand  caiques  constantly  plying  between  the 
European  and  Asiatic  sides,  and  up  and  down  the  waters  which 
make  Constantinople  such  an  alluring  resort  and  such  a  commer- 
cial capital.  The  gondola  has  almost  been  replaced  in  Venice  by 
the  little  steam  mouches  which  fly  over  its  limpid  avenues.  What 
the  gondola  was  once,  and  is,  to  the  Venetian  and  the  tourist,  the 
caique  was,  and  is  yet,  to  the  Turk  and  his  Oriental  guests.  There 
have  been  great  changes  upon  the  Bosporus  by  the  introduction 
of  steam.  The  number  of  the  caiques  has  been  reduced.  There 
are  perhaps  not  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  now.  The  larger 
number  of  these  may  be  hired  like  cabs  in  New  York.  These  are 
called  kirlangich,  or  "swallow  boats."  There  is  another  bird 
peculiar  to  the  Bosporus  which  is  suggested  by  these  boats,  even 
more  appositely  than  the  swallow.  I  mean  the  bird  called,  from 
its  restless  habits,  "the  condemned  soul."  These  birds  fly  in 
flocks  constantly.  They  are  never  seen  upon  the  wave,  but  always 
upon  the  wing.  They  are  in  perpetual  unrest.  Going  down  to 
the  city  from  the  upper  Bosporus,  I  have  encountered  fl.ocks 
of  them  by  the  hundred.  They  fly  just  above  the  surface. 
Where  they  nestle,  how  they  live  and  what  they  do,  are  among  the 
questions  which  the  tourist  puts  in  vain  to  the  native,  and  which 
only  a  treatise  on  ornithology  may  answer.  They  suggest  the 
caique,  because  of  their  continually  coming  and  going.  Turn 
which  way  you  will  upon  the  Bosporus,  even  when  the  ferry-boats 
ply  every  ten  minutes,  up,  down  and  about,  you  will  see  these 
birds.    They  fly  straight  ahead,  as  if  intent  on  business.   They  do 


PERILS  OF  'I HE  CAIQUE.  405 

not  play  around  upon  the  waves  and  become  domesticated,  glut- 
tonous and  noisy  in  the  harbor,  as  the  sea-gulls  do.  For  be  it 
known  that  the  birds  of  the  Bosporus  are  as  multitudinous  as  the 
■dogs  of  Stamboul;  and  they  are  as  much  protected  by  the  Turk 
as  the  dog  and  other  animals. 

The  Yankee  who  laughed  at  our  boat  has  not  described  it 
accurately.  It  is  generally  made  of  thin  planks  of  beachwood, 
with  a  neat  finish  and  elaborate  carving.  It  is  sharply  pointed  at 
both  ends.  The  elegance  of  its  construction,  the  levity  of  its 
materials,  the  singular  shape  of  the  oars — being  very  thin,  wide, 
and  light  at  the  feather  end,  and  bulbous  at  the  handle — and  the 
dexterity  and  picturesqueness  of  the  boatmen,  give  to  it  a  rapid- 
ity of  movement  and  a  grace  of  form  exquisite,  unique  and 
Oriental. 

The  boat,  besides  having  long  borne  our  starred  ensign,  is  one 
of  the  most  graceful  of  its  kind.  It  is  six-oared,  three  oars  on 
each  side,  and  guided  by  a  rudder. 

These  boats  can  always  be  had  for  hire  at  the  landing-stages. 
The  larger  ones  are  used  for  parties  of  pleasure,  families  on  a 
picnic,  and  for  passengers  on  business.  As  the  waters  of  the  Bos- 
porus are  very  deep  and  are  always  running,  and  in  some  pbces 
with  a  swift  current,  much  caution  is  required,  not  only  in  enter- 
ing the  caique,  but  in  trimming  it  after  you  are  in.  It  is  easily 
overset.  Two  members  of  the  brass  band  of  the  Kearsarge 
the  past  summer,  on  the  visit  of  that  vessel  to  the  Bosporus,  lost 
their  lives  because  of  their  awkwardness  in  the  caique.  The  pas- 
sengers must  si',  in  the  bottom,  upon  a  Turkish  rug  or  crimson 
■cushion.  The  caiques  are  like  our  canoes  in  one  respect.  They 
are  long  and  very  narrow,  and  sensitive  to  every  motion  of  the 
passenger.  Nervous  people  should  never  enter  them.  But  the 
Turkish  lady  has  a  cautious  step,  and  an  immobility  when  seated, 
■which  exactly  suit  the  humor  of  the  caique. 

The  water-men  of  the  boats  are  dressed  in  white  cotton-crepe 
shirts.  They  wear  on  their  heads  a  small  scarlet  skull  cap.  It  is 
no  protection  from  the  sun;  and  the  amazement  is,  that  such  a 
head-dress,  which  is  no  shade  over  the  eye  or  the  face,  should  be 
acceptable  in  a  country  so  thoroughly  drenched  with  sunbeams. 
There  was  some  sense  in  the  old  turban,  which  absorbed  the  rays 
of  the  sun  and  cooled  the  head,  but  now  you  will  see  nearly  every 
Turkish  subject  with  a  fez  cap,  worn  somewhat  on  the  back  of 


406  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

the  head,  so  that  the  eye  must  meet  the  glare  of  the  pavement  and 
stream,  or  the  blaze  of  the  sun,  ?.nd  the  forehead  must  be  of 
perpetual  bronze.  The  idea  of  the  brimless  fez  is,  however,  a 
religious  one.  With  a  rim  to  the  fez,  or  to  a  hat,  how  could  the 
pious  Mussulman  touch  the  earth  with  his  forehead  in  his 
prayers  ? 

The  ca'iquejis  are  a  muscular  race  of  men.  They  are  mostly 
of  the  Greek  race.  Some  of  them  have  a  disagreeable  grunt  as 
they  ply  their  oars,  o'.ving  to  inordinate  exertion  when  young, 
which  affected  their  lungs.  These  calquejis  are  not  garru- 
lous. They  are  mute  and  reserved.  They  are  machines,  in  the 
regularity  with  which  they  keep  time  with  the  oars.  They  neither 
look  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  except  now  and  then  a  rapid  glance 
to  see  that  their  onward  way  is  clear.  And  yet  the  Greek  boat- 
man, like  the  gondolier,  will  sometimes  break  mto  song,  and  the 
song  will  keep  measure  with  the  plunge  of  the  oar.  The  disso- 
nance of  the  singer  may  be  somewhat  drowned,  if  not  harmonized,, 
with  the  delightful,  dreamy  charm  of  the  motion  and  plash  of  the 
oar.  The  songs  are  not  only  inharmonious  but  monotonous.  They 
require  distance  to  mellow  them. 

When  visits  were  to  be  made  by  the  Legation,  the  caiquejis 
are  arrayed  in  cleanly  white  apparel,  not  unlike  that  of  an  ancient 
Roman  senator.  Their  bosoms  and  arms  are  bare.  There  is  a 
rhythmic  music  in  their  movement.  This  adds  to  the  pleasure  of 
the  trip  and  enhances  t"he  beauty  of  the  boat,  making  it  a  living 
picture  upon  a  mobile  element  of  lucent  lymph. 

The  harbor  of  Constantinople  is  not  only  celebrated  for  its 
natural  advantages,  but  the  immense  and  heavy  shipping  in  the 
harbor  presents  a  striking  contrast  with  these  beautiful  caiques. 
Amid  the  ferry-boats,  as  large  as  those  that  ply  between  New 
York  and  Jersey  City,  and  the  Austrian,  French,  Russian  and 
English  steamers  which  crowd  the  harbor,  these  faerie  boats,  with 
their  arrowy  points  and  precious  burden  of  hanoums,  are  continu- 
ally darting  with  graceful  rapidity  hither  and  yon  among  the 
heavier  craft  of  a  new  civilization.  They  illustrate  the  fact  that 
the  spell  of  delight  and  the  dream  of  enchantment  have  not  yet 
entirely  departed  from  the  city  of  the  Sultan.  Amid  the  grand 
scenery  of  the  Bosporus  the  little  caique  still  holds  its  own. 
Within  the  splendid  harbor  it  still  plays  its  petite  part.  Crowded 
as  is  the  harbor  with  its  myriads  of  boats,  it  is  yet  deep  and  large 


408  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

enough  to  hold  twelve  hundred  sail,  and  give  hospitality  to  iron- 
clads, which  moor  in  its  tideless  waters  even  up  to  the  lintels  of 
the  houses,  as  well  as  to  the  craft  of  every  rig  and  nation — the 
feluccas,  xebecs  and  bragozzi  of  the  neighboring  isles,  and  great 
ships  of  iron  flying  the  red  Crescent  of  the  Sultan.  Still  the 
caique,  amidst  them  all,  is  a  living  beauty  and  an  active  utility. 
Not  merely  the  pasha  in  his  fez,  and  his  wives  in  their  veils  of 
tulle,  but  the  hundred  nationalities  which  here  assemble  have 
their  story  and  experience  with  this  fanciful  caique.  What  tales 
it  could  tell,  if  it  were  only  sentient  and  voiceful!  Would  it  not 
speak  of  the  "rage  of  the  vulture,  the  love  of  the  turtle,"  the 
melodious  voice  of  the  nightingale,  and  of  "  the  virgins  as  soft  as 
the  roses  they  twine  "?  Would  it  not  sigh  over  the  stories  of  the 
Selims  and  Zuliekas  of  the  fateful  Orient  ? 

Upon  Friday,  which  is  a  day  of  recreation  as  well  as  of  religion, 
when  the  crowds  of  the  capital  turn  out  on  a  pleasant  afternoon  to 
visit  the  "  Sweet  Waters  of  Asia  "  opposite  the  Towers  of  Europe, 
or  the  "  Sweet  Waters  of  Europe  "  at  the  head  of  the  Golden  Horn, 
every  caique  is  in  requisition.  In  fact,  every  kind  of  boat  upon 
the  Bosporus  is  then  active.  The  vast  and  varied  population  of 
the  city  and  the  suburbs  of  Pera  and  Constantinople,  and  of  the 
Golden  Horn,  are  continually  embarking  or  returning  on  these 
and  other  festal  days  in  these  frail  boats.  Although  steam  ferries 
run  every  ten  minutes  up  and  down  the  whole  length  of  the  Straits, 
from  Cavak  to  Seraglio  Point,  yet  a  considerable  body  of  the 
people  go  to  and  from  the  city  and  th'eir  homes  by  this  old,  fami- 
liar method.  The  caique  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  obsolete 
Now  you  will  see  in  it  a  bevy  of  Turkish  women,  dressed  in  silks 
of  every  hue,  seated  upon  a  rug  or  cushion  smoking  their  cigarettes, 
in  full  glee  over  their  gossip  from  the  bath.  Or  peradventure,  you 
will  notice  a  company  of  Persians  in  their  pointed  caps,  or  of 
Mollahs  with  white  turbans  and  green,  in  tinted  pelisses,  or  of 
Nubian  boatmen,  with  rose-colored  jackets,  and  faces  that  shine 
and  eyes  that  sparkle.  In  the  sunshine  or  in  the  shadow,  dart- 
ing under  the  arches  of  the  palaces  and  houses,  under  the  helm 
of  some  eunuch,  who  is  in  charge  of  a  household,  or  between  the 
boats  which  form  the  pontoon  bridges  of  the  Golden  Horn,  you 
see  these  boats  perpetually  skimming  the  clear  blue  water  as  if 
propelled  through  the  air  like  some  fantastic,  dreamy  creation  of 
the  Thousand  and  One  Nights. 


VARIETIES  OF  THE  CAIQUE. 


409 


These  boats  are  still  affected  by  the  pashas  who  can  afford  to 
keep  them.  You  may  tell  the  boat  of  a  rich  Turk  by  the  silken 
gauze  sleeves  of  the  caiquejis,  or  boatmen.  Their  sleeves  wave 
in  unison  with  the  stroke  of  the  oar  upon  the  water.  On  festive 
days,  and  especially  among  the  Greek  ix)pulation,  these  boats  are 
filled  with  musicians  and  revelers, who  use  the  liberty  of  the  occa- 
sion to  do  much  shouting,  and  make  what  they  denominate  music, 
if  not  melody.  The  songs  may  be  discordant,  but  the  singers  or 
musicians  do  not  know  it.     It  is  quite  picturesque  and  exhilarat- 


CAYQUE   AT   SWEET   WATERS   OF  EUROPE. 


ing  to  the  Occidental  taste  to  look  down  from  the  ferry-boat,  or,  as 
I  used  to  do,  from  the  deck  of  our  launch,  ujxin  the  turban,  the  fez, 
the  caftan,  the  feridji  and  the  yashmak,  and  other  gear  such  as 
the  curly,  black  sheepskin  hat  of  the  Circassian,  the  felt  hat  of  the 
dervish,  and  the  dark  cap  of  the  Montenegrin,  dashed  with  crimson 
and  gold;  or  slyly  peer  beneath  the  gauzy  veil  of  some  lady  of 
large,  liquid,  dark  and  dangerous  eyes,  under  a  red  parasol,  who  is 
by  no  means  unwilling  to  be  observed.  These  little  incidents  of 
navigation  give  grace,  as  well  as  piquancy,  to  the  scenes  of  the 
Bosporus. 


4 1 0  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Sometimes  the  caique  is  so  ornamented  as  to  have  all  the  hues 
of  the  prism.  But  generally  it  is  varnished  and  has  a  golden- 
yellow  hue.  It  is  fretted  and  pointed  with  elegant  tracery.  There 
are  seldom  any  accidents  to  the  caique  upon  the  Bosporus, 
although  there  seems,  to  a  stranger,  to  be  danger  and  confusion 
in  its  movements.  You  would  think  that  it  was  about  to  be  run 
down  by  some  heavier  vessel,  or  by  the  steam  ferry  or  big  steamer; 
but  the  caiqueji  has  a  quick  glance  and  a  cunning  oar,  and  his 
slender  craft  is  out  of  the  way  in  a  twinkling. 

The  grand  caique  of  the  Sultan  is  now  almost  out  of  use.  I 
have  seen  it  but  once  upon  the  Bosporus.  It  is  as  skillful  in  its 
graceful  construction  as  it  is  gorgeous  in  its  splendors.  Nay  ; 
call  it  not  gorgeous  !  Its  beauty  is  rather  that  of  simplicity.  It  is 
immaculate,  except  that  it  is  broidered  with  pink  and  gold.  It 
has  twelve  pair  of  oars.  These  touch  the  water  as  if  they  were 
feathered.  The  twenty-six  rowers  are  dressed  in  white  silk  shirts, 
loose,  white,  baggy  trousers  and  the  scarlet  fez.  They  make  a 
stroke  every  thirty  seconds.  There  is  a  crimson  velvet  canopy 
over  the  stern.  It  is  embroidered  with  gold,  upheld  by  four 
gilded  columns.  Under  this  canopy  is  a  sofa  of  velvet  for  His 
Majesty.  Near  by  are  benches  for  his  aides.  The  tiller  is  held 
by  an  Arab  dressed  in  scarlet  and  gold.  At  the  stern  is  a  big 
gilded  bird.  It  is  not  the  American  eagle  ;  for  our  bird  is  of 
another  beak  and  shape.  Still,  it  has  a  resemblance  to  the  eagle 
in  the  outspread  wings.     It  is  not  a  bird  of  prey  ;  only  a  peacock  ! 

This  description  gives  a  dim  idea  only  of  the  exquisite  beauty 
of  this  boat.  That  beauty  is  duplicated,  by  reflection,  in  the  mir- 
roring Bosporus.  It  is  enhanced  by  the  retinue  of  caiques,  which 
dance  after  its  royal  eminence. 

This  leads  to  the  remark  that  our  own  caique  had  upon  its 
bow  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  American  eagle.  When  I  took 
charge  of  the  Legation,  the  eagle  had  lost  the  main  part  of  its 
beak.  It  had  been  denuded  of  several  of  its  fierce  tail  feathers. 
Its  wings  did  not  show  the  energy  of  an  American  spread.  After 
several  amendments  in  the  first  and  second  degree  to  that  eagle, 
I  had  moved  a  substitute  and  had  the  original  bird  placed  over 
the  Legation,  in  the  alleyway  which  the  American  Congress  gen- 
erously allows  its  Minister  to  furnish  as  headquarters.  That  bird 
indicates  to  the  American  tourist  the  survival  of  our  nation  in  the 
East,  in  spite  of  the  lamentable  lack  of  appropriations. 


WEDDING  THE  SEA. 


411 


When,  as  Wordsworth  sings,  Venice,  the  Maiden  City,  bright 
and  free,  took  unto  herself  a  mate,  and  espoused  the  Everlasting 
Sea,  did  not  Venice  copy  her  custom  from  the  gorgeous  East, 
which  she  once  "held  in  fee"?  It  was  about  the  time  of  the 
third  Crusade,  while  Dandolo  was  Ambassador  at  the  Porte,  and 
before  he  wore  the  ducal  bonnet  made  in  the  similitude  of  a  horn — 
from  the  Golden  Horn, its  prototype  m  the  East — a  few  years  before 
the  old  hero  led  the  way  to  the  conquest  of  Constantinople,  and 
when  Venice  was  full  of  republican  pride  and  prosperity — that 
the  espousal  of  the  Adriatic  originated.  The  Pope,  being  grateful 
for  the  services  of  Venice,  presented  the  Doge  with  a  gold  ring.  It 
was  a  pledge  of  Venetian  sovereignty  over  the  sea.  "  Every  year," 
said  the  Pope, "renew  with  this  nng  your  marriage  with  the  sea,that 
all  posterity  may  know  that  the  Adriatic  owes  to  you  the  obedience 
of  a  wife  to  her  husband."  For  six  hundred  years  this  ceremony 
was  observed.  The  famous  Bucintoro,  or  great  state  galley,  leads 
the  way,  with  a  dazzling  retinue  of  craft,  and  amid  the  thunder  of 
cannon,  toward  the  Lido.  When  they  enter  the  open  sea  the 
Doge  unlocks  his  private  chamber  in  the  vessel,  a  priest  sprinkles 
holy  water  into  the  sea,  and  the  ring  is  dropped  on  the  sacred 
waves,  while  the  Doge  utters  in  Latinity  this  sentence  : 

' '  We  wed  thee,  O  Sea  !  in  token  of  true  and  perpetual 
sovereignty." 

There  is  a  model  of  the  Bucintoro  in  the  arsenal  at  Venice.  The 
original  was  stripped  of  its  gilt  ornaments  and  partly  burned  by 
the  vandalic  French  in  a,  d.  1797.  Still,  the  hull  survived  as  a  gun- 
boat until  A.  D.  1824.  The  boat  was  a  hundred  feet  long.  It  had  two 
stories  and  forty-two  oars  ;  four  men  to  an  oar.  It  was  profusely 
ornamented,  inside  and  outside,  with  gilt  flowers  and  fruits,  shells 
and  syrens,  fish  and  tritons.  It  had  a  double  prow,  representing 
rule  Over  sea  and  land.  Nymphs  and  caryatides  upheld  the 
canopy  of  scarlet  satin  which  covered  the  great  saloon.  The  nobles 
and  ambassadors  occupied  the  stern  about  the  Doge,  who  sat  on 
a  gilded  throne.  Behind  this  throne  were  the  winged  lions  and 
the  gonfalon  of  St.  Mark.  These  emblems  betoken  a  most  gor- 
geous display.  These  symbols,  like  the  "properties"  in  St. 
Marks,  were  stolen  from  the  Constantinople  of  the  Greeks  by  the 
wily  Venetian.  The  Doges  who  glided  in  such  stately  style  out 
of  the  lagoons  into  the  blue  sea,  emulated  but  never  surpassed 
the    splendor    of    the    contemporary    emperors    of    Byzantium 


412 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


when,  upon  their  festal  days,  they  passed  up  and  down  the 
Bosporus. 

Cleopatra  in  all  her  pageantry  upon  the  Nile,  with  her  boat  of 
curiously  shaped  prow,  rigged,  like  Southey's  ship  of  heaven,  with 
rainbows,  never  made  a  more  elegant  or  royal  figure  than  the 
Selims,  Amuraths,  and  Mahomets  of  the  past  when  they  crossed 
the  Bosporus  to  make  their  devotions  in  the  mosques  of  the  old 
city  of  Stamboul,  or  in  grand  procession  paid  their  devoirs  to  their 
harems  upon  the  Isles  of  the  Princes.  The  royal  caique  was  a 
mass  of  gilding  and  glitter.  It  fairly  gleamed  in  the  sunshine.  It 
was  more  than  a  caique  :  it  was  a  painted  splendor— a  poetic 
creation  which  was  etherealized  by  the  elements,  the  water  and 
the  air,  and  the  exquisite  lustre  and  shadow  which  it  cast  upon 
the  one  element,  and  the  graceful  rise  and  fall  of  its  movement 
through  the  other. 

No  wonder  our  Legation  boat,  so  fragile  and  so  dainty,  should 
receive  damage  in  crossing  the  vexed  Atlantic  upon  the  exposed 
deck  of  a  Cunarder.  Generally  these  boats  give  the  impression 
of  a  light,  buoyant,  glittering  image,  hardly  substantial.  The 
crimson  drapery,  fringed  with  gold,  which  hangs  over  its  sides, 
almost  dipping  into  the  water,  and  under  the  sweet  light  which 
has  its  peculiar  properties  upon  the  Bosporus,  by  the  richness  and 
variety  of  its  color,  gives  a  superb  costume  to  the  boat.  This  is 
in  harmony  with  the  costumes  of  the  people  who  grace  it  with 
their  languid  and  decorous  dignity. 

The  boat  is  an  evidence  of  progress.  If  you  would  know 
how  the  world  has  moved,  study  the  galleys  of  ancient  history  ; 
or  even  the  thousand-year-old  Norse  vessels  which,  after  dis- 
interment, I  saw  on  exhibition,  in  Christiania,  Norway.  I  have 
made  a  description  of  the  latter  in  a  volume  called  "  Arctic  Sun- 
beams," and  instituted  the  comparison  between  them  and  the 
boats  of  the  Bosporus.  There  is  much  similarity  ;  but  the  poetic 
and  beateous  levity  is  not  a  part  of  the  Norse  Yecht.  During  the 
past  summer  I  mixed  much  with  the  Greek  sailors  at  Prinkipo. 
I  saw  many  curious  caiques  ;  for  I  was  eager  to  know  what  was 
the  shape,  tonnage  and  size,  the  utilities  and  beauties  of  the  old 
galley — if  you  please,  the  Turkish  galley — the  galley  in  which 
Barbarossa  and  Kairid-Ali  won  their  splendid  victories  in  the 
Mediterranean.  I  find  a  description  of  this  galley  in  Creasy,  It 
must  have  been  the  same  kind  of  boat  which  the  Turks  used  when 


FESTIVE  MELASCHOLY. 


413 


they  dragged  their  vessels  overland  from  Dolma-Bagtche  to  the 
Golden  Horn,  at  the  taking  of  Constantinople. 

The  galley  was  a  long  boat,  provided  with  a  main  and  fore 
mast,  which  might  be  raised  and  strung  as  required.  She  carried 
large  latteen  sails,  which  could  only  be  trusted  under  way  in  light 
winds  and  smooth  seas,  while  her  great  length  must  have  exposed 
her  to  foundering  in  a  rough  sea.  In  fact,  the  galley  seems  to 
me  to  be  an  enlarged  caique,  swift  to  move,  and  yet  uncomfort- 
able and  dangerous. 

Among  the  isles  of  the  Archipelago  known  as  the  "Princes 
Isles,"  where  we  sojourned  in  the  summer  of  1886,  the  chants 
of  the  fishermen  as  they  draw  in  their  nets  were  quite  as  common 
as  they  were  musical — when  remote.  Summer  before  last,  our 
experience  was  not  as  pleasant  with  the  fishermen  of  the  upper 
Bosporus.  These  latter  toilers  of  the  sea  are  of  Italian  descent. 
They  are  quite  independent  of  all  national,  Turkish  or  inter- 
national rules  or  laws  concerning  this  greatest  and  grandest  of 
water-ways.  Late  at  night,  in  their  caiques,  they  set  their  surface- 
nets.  These  nets  are  buoyed  up  by  gourds  or  corks,  and  when 
the  Legations  are  making  their  nocturnal  visits  to  one  another 
between  Buyukdere  and  Therapia,  or  returning  home  from  fetes  or 
dances — they  use  their  steam  launches.  Woe  to  the  Russian, 
German,  French,  English  or  Italian  "mouche,"  whose  screw 
makes  an  entangling  alliance  [enchevStrement)  with  these  nets 
upon  the  "  fishy  Bosporus."  Oh,  the  wail  which  rises  over  the 
dark  blue  water  and  penetrates  to  lacerate  the  heart  of  the  unfor- 
tunate diplomat  or  launchman  !  That  wail  still  rings  in  my  ears 
— a  rasping,  howling  plaint  of  agony,  long  drawn  out — echoing 
from  shore  to  shore,  and  caught  up  in  a  succession  of  cries,  as  if 
each  one  of  the  crafty  "  moonlighters  "  upon  the  public  preserves 
would  warn  his  fellow-trespasser  of  the  impending  danger.  It  is 
a  cry  of  protest,  piteous,  indignant  and  despairing;  and  as  long 
as  the  bill  which  the  unlucky  fisherman  presents  the  next  day  at 
the  Legation  with  grimace  and  lament  for  the  loss  of  his  only 
means  of  living — his  precious  net. 

These  troubles,  however,  had  their  compensations.  When  we 
resided  at  Therapia,  many  a  love-song  floated  on  the  evening  air, 
in  the  gloaming  or  in  the  moonlight,  from  some  caique,  as  it 
darted  up  and  down  the  stream,  or  was  moored  idly  in  the  shadow 
of  a  palace  wall.     The  music    is  sometimes  accompanied  by  a 


414  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

rude  guitar,  a  small  drum  or  tambourine.  It  is  hardly  a  song 
which  is  sung.  It  has  no  festive  ring.  It  is  a  melancholy  chant, 
always  in  the  minor  mode.  It  is  a  recitation  rather  than  a  song 
or  a  chant.  If  there  be  any  heroic  lay  sung  upon  the  Bosporus, 
as  Byron  intimated  about  the  songs  of  the  degenerate  Grecian 
isles,  ''  it  is  tuneless  now  " — not  more  tuneless  than  the  effigies 
of  the  caiquejis,  whose  boat  clothes  have  been  imported  along  with 
our  Legation  caique,  and  which  are  hereafter  to  be  filled  by  the 
plastic,  waxen  art  of  Professor  Baird  or  his  Museum  employees. 

I  have  frequently  asked  for  the  meaning  of  these  songs,  and 
have  received  for  answer  that  most  of  them  have  reference  to 
some  heart  that  was  breaking  or  some  beauty  to  be  won.  Their 
burden  may  be  of  some  fair  one  who  is  about  to  leave  her  swain 
for  foreign  parts  ;  and  the  wind  blows,  the  sea  is  rough,  the 
sails  are  filled,  and  like  the  plumes  of  a  little  pigeon  she  is  about 
to  spread  her  wings  for  that  distant  clime.  "I  weep  not  for 
the  boat,  I  weep  not  for  the  sails,  but  I  weep  for  the  fair  one  who  is 
going  away."  And  as  the  singer  intones  the  sentiment,  the  tears 
are  in  his  voice,  if  not  in  his  eyes. 

Again  to  our  balcony  near  the  quay,  from  the  Asiatic  shore 
comes  this  lugubrious  lay: 

"  Three  months  elapsed  before  I  saw  thee,  Ma-ri-a-me-ne  ! 
Ma-ri-a-me-ne  !  I  thought  they  were  three  years.  Three  sharp 
knives  into  my  heart  did  enter,  Ma-ri-a-me-ne  !    Ma-ri-a-me-ne  !" 

Then  there  is  another  strain,  still  more  lachrymose,  seeming 
to  float  out  of  the  shadow  of  Jason's  mountain: 

"  As  many  as  are  the  stars  in  the  skies,  as  many  as  are  the 
windows  in  Stamboul;  so  many  are  the  damsels  I  have  kissed  on 
the  eye-brows  and  on  the  eyes  !  " 

Not  a  very  sad  experience,  but  sung  ever  so  triste  !  Then  out 
of  the  quiet  bay  of  Buyukdere  comes  drawling  this  tender  bar- 
carolle : 

"Let  us  make  our  vows  under  the  columns;  and  if  I  do  not 
love  thee,  Fatima,  let  them  all  fall  and  crush  me.  So,  then,  let 
my  lips  say  that  I  love  you;  that  the  rose  leaves  of  my  heart  may 
become  conserves  of  sweetness  !  " 

In  the  National  Museum  at  Washington,  there  is  a  collection, 
not  of  these  conserved  sweet-hearts,  but  of  the  unstranded  boats 
of  various  nations,  from  Labrador  to  New  Zealand.  The  time  will 
come  when  it  will  contain  every  variety  of  boat,  from  the  catamaran 


ANCHORED  AT  LAST. 


415 


of  Ceylon  to  the  coracle  of  ancient  Egypt  and  modern  Wales  ; 
from  the  caboose  of  the  modern  merchaniman  to  the  galley  of 
the  ancient  Roman;  from  the  thousand-year-old  yacht  of  the 
Norseman  to  the  skiff  of  the  Buckeye  raftsman  of  my  early  days 
on  the  Muskingum. 

In  such  a  medley,  where  junks,  pinnaces,  punts,  yawls,  tillers, 
rowlocks  and  gondolas  may  illustrate  the  variety  and  history  of 
national  navigation,  I  resolve  that  the  caique  of  Constantinople 
should  have  its  well-won  prominence.  Whereupon,  after  the 
Department  of  State  had  directed  me  to  dispose  of  the  Lega- 


ANCIENT  GALLEY. 


tion  caique,  as  no  longer  necessary  for  the  economic  trans- 
portation of  the  Minister  and  his  suite,  and  as  -it  required  a 
burden  on  the  Federal  Treasury  of  nearly  three  mejedies  a  quar- 
ter, or  $12  a  year,  and  as  our  six-oared  boat  was  obsolete  and 
could  not  be  sold  for  the  price  of  its  keepmg  for  a  quarter — it 
occurs  to  me  that  it  would  make  a  useful  if  not  a  beautiful  exhibit 
amid  the  strange  and  curious  boats  collected  in  our  Federal 
capital.  ' 

Mr.  Bayard  cheerfully  acquiesced  in  my  wish.  As  the  boat 
was  difficult  to  ship  and  could  not  well  be  boxed,  and  as  there  was 
no  expense  to  the  United  States  Treasury  for  its  transportation. 


4 1 6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

it  again  occurs  to  me  to  make  it  the  companion  of  two  emigrants 
which  1  sent  from  Egypt,  one  of  whom  has  now  an  isolated  resi- 
dence in  the  National  Museum.  It  did  not  irk,  but  it  amused 
somewhat  that  the  enterprising  American  press  had  discovered 
that  my  mum.mies,  which  were  presented  by  a  friend — Mehemet 
Ali — at  Luxor,  were  dead-headed  home  at  the  expense  of  the 
United  States  Government.  This  was  one  of  the  many  mistakes 
which  my  remoteness  from  home  did  not  enable  me  to  correct. 
However,  it  is  a  solace  for  my  absence  that  I  have  been  enabled, 
both  by  the  mummy  and  the  caique,  to  add  something  of  interest 
to  the  national  collection.  Certainly,  for  myself,  whenever  I 
enter  the  Museum,  I  shall  be  reminded  of  the  days  which  were 
rounded  out  of  the  Crescent  into  the  fullness  of  beauty,  not  only 
amid  the  temples  and  tombs  of  old  Egypt,  but  on  the  waters  and 
amid  the  scenes  which  make  my  memory  of  the  Orient  a  joy  for- 
ever! 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


DOGS  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE — A  CANINE  REPUBLIC — FIGHTSw 


J'    r  _  |..jiy^gS.J-)jrn  -. 


DOGS   IN  THE  STREETS  OF   CONSTANTINOPl.E. 


Would  there  be  so  many  cases  of  hydrophobia  if  it  were  not 
for  Pasteur?  This  was  the  question  of  a  clever  "  medicine  man  " 
here  who  has  compassed  the  world  in  a  scientific  way.  No  doubt 
Pasteur's  remedy  has  called  unusual  attention  to  the  subject  of 
rabies.  Whether  his  theory  of  the  microbe  be  correct  or  his  prac- 
tice uniformly  salutary,  a  layman  like  myself  cannot  presume  to 
discuss.  Owing  to  my  relation  at  this  capital  (of  Constantinople), 
and  the  presumption  that  a  Mmister  does  or  ought  to  know  "all 
things  and  some  others"  in  and  around  his  post,  I  have  received 
many  letters  about  the  dogs  of  Constantinople.  I  have  not  stud- 
ied their  statistics  ;  only  their  habits.  I  may  say  that  they  do 
not  number  500  dogs  to  the  acre.  Yet  this  is  not  such  an  exag- 
geration as  some  would  suppose.  In  the  old  Turkish  quarters  of 
Stamboul,  where  they  are  petted  by  the  population,  they  are  as 


4 1 8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

thick  as  leaves  in  fall.  They  do  not  seem  to  lessen  in  number. 
Puppies  of  every  degree,  size  and  age  are  being  constantly  turned 
out.  There  is,  therefore,  no  better  place  than  Constantinople  to 
study  one  type  at  least  of  the  canine  family  in  its  relation  to  the 
genus  homo. 

A  correspondent  from  Wisconsin  was  anxious  to  know,  from 
some  scientific  standpoint,  whether  rabies  prevailed  among  these 
Turkish  dogs.  He  had  heard  that  they  were  ownerless  and  neg- 
lected. His  inference  naturally  was  that,  being  famished  and 
uncared  for,  they  were  therefore  likely  to  become  mad  I  con- 
sulted Dr.  John  Patterson  on  these  points.  He  is  at  the  head  of 
the  English  hospital  here,  and  well  known  in  the  East  as  a  most 
accomplished  physician.  He  addressed  me  a  letter,  in  which  he 
rehearsed  his  opinions,  formed  in  Labrador  among  the  sled-dogs, 
in  Egypt  among  the  shepherd  dogs,  and  in  Turkey  among  the 
vagrant  dogs.  It  was  that  rabies  was  much  exaggerated.  He 
premised  that  in  Constantinople,  Asiatic  Turkey  and  Egypt,  where 
pariah  dogs  abound,  rabies  was  rare.  The  doctor  was  thirteen 
years  in  Egypt  and  has  been  eighteen  years  in  Turkey,  and  in 
each  country  in  full  practice.  He  never  saw  a  case  of  rabies. 
He  had  treated  many  dog-bites,  and  was  anxious  to  see  an  un- 
doubted case  of  madness.  During  these  periods  he  had  only 
heard  of  three  or  four  cases.  He  states  further,  that  since  Pas- 
teur's alleged  discovery  of  a  preventive,  there  has  been  reported 
such  an  enormous  mcrease  of  cases  of  hydrophobia  in  every 
country  of  Europe  as  naturally  to  create  doubt  of  the  correctness 
of  the  statements. 

The  only  reasonable  explanation  of  the  comparative  freedom 
from  rabies  m  these  countries,  where  dogs  abound  and  exist  under 
conditions  presumably  favorable  to  the  development  of  the  disease, 
is  that  the  animals  live  nearly  in  their  natural  state — i.  e.,  in  the 
open  air  and  sunshine — and  are  not  over-fed  and  pampered.  That 
this  may  be  the  true  reason,  is  probable  from  the  fact  that  in 
•extremely  cold  countries,  as  Greenland  and  other  Arctic  regions, 
rabies  is  also  scarce  amongst  dogs,  though  they  are  exposed  to 
much  hardship  and  privation.  This  is  the  report  of  the  Danish 
inspectors  and  intelligent  natives.  No  one  of  them  had  seen  or 
heard  of  a  case  of  hydrophobia.  Against  these  statements  is  the 
fact  that  an  allied  species,  the  wolf  and  fox  (especially  the 
former),  are  in  their  natural  state  very  liable  to  become  rabid. 


A  DOG.BITE  AND  AN  ESSA  Y.  4 1  q 

Without  discussing  the  paradox  as  to  the  wolf  and  fox,  or 
entering  upon  the  Pasteur  theory,  I  may  state  that  we  moved  to 
the  Isle  of  Prinkipo  for  the  summer  of  1886.  It  is  in  the  Sea  of 
Marmora,  a  dozen  miles  below  the  city.  There  are  several  ferries 
running  there  every  day.  Doubtless  the  number  of  dogs  on  the 
island  is  owing  to  the  easy  communication.  Most  of  them  are 
used  as  watch-dogs  and  hunters  ;  but  many  of  them  are  vagrant, 
and  of  the  same  kind  as  at  Constantinople.  It  was  one  of  these 
dogs  which  gripped  my  wrist  in  our  garden  at  Prinkipo.  It  was  a 
watch-dog.  It  is  of  a  different  breed  from  that  of  the  vagrant 
dog.  He  bit  me  in  the  line  of  his  duty,  as  he  supposed.  He 
had  been  guarding  the  premises  from  intruders  before  we 
moved  into  the  house,  and  having  returned  to  his  kennel  and  his 
vigilance  in  the  garden,  he  considered  us  to  be  interlopers.  The 
snap  of  his  ugly  jaw  still  makes  my  bone  shiver.  Luckily,  the 
grip  was  on  the  thick  and  polished  shirt  cuff.  His  teeth  slipped 
off  the  cuff  and  made  but  a  slight  abrasion  of  the  skin.  Any  fear 
of  rabies  ?    Not  at  all  ;  for  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind  here. 

However,  my  bite  got  into  the  papers.  It  was  just  before  the 
Sultan  gave  us  a  dinner  at  Yildiz  palace.  My  companion  at  the 
table  was  Dr.  S.  S.  Mavroy^ni.  Whether  it  was  because  his  initials 
were  sweetly  silbilant,  like  my  own  S.  S. ;  or  because  he  was 
unusually  accomplished;  or  because  he  was  the  Sultan's  chief  phy- 
sician— for  that  monarch  has  twelve  other  doctors  under  the  Mavro- 
y^ni  Pasha — or  whether  the  Doctor  was  able  to  talk  in  some  other 
tongue  than  his  vernacular  Greek,  his  adopted  Turkish,  or  his 
favorite  German,  we  became  colloquial  over  the  wine;  for  be  it 
known  that  the  Sultan  gives  his  guests  all  the  wine  they  desire, 
whether  it  be  according  to  the  Koran  or  not.  He  abstains  himself, 
and  thus  keeps  the  law.  Well,  my  dog-bite  came  up  for  discus- 
sion. I  found  the  doctor  to  be  partial  to  dogs.  He  explained 
that  the  vagrants  were  not  watch-dogs,  but  by  training,  could 
be  made  faithful  and  fierce. 

The  other  day  I  received  from  the  excellent  Doctor  a  brochure, 
in  French,  entitled,  "  Les  Chiens  Errants  de  Constantinople — Etude 
de  Afceurs." 

That  my  scratch  could  lead  to  such  a  learned  discussion, 
should  engender  a  feeling  of  national  pride.  When,  in  its  perusal, 
I  found  the  doctor  to  be  a  democratic-republican  of  the  Amer- 
ican type,  I  was  patriotically  elated.     In  speaking  of  these  errant 

• 


420  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

dogs,  he  says  that  they  have  an  autonomy  and  are  free  ;  they 
have  no  wish  to  impose  their  will  on  any,  but  delegate  different 
services  and  functions  to  each  dog,  according  to  his  capacity. 
They  have,  I  suppose,  a  sort  of  civil-service.  What  examination 
they  undergo  for  selection  or  preferment  we  are  not  told  by  the 
Doctor.  He  finds  their  government  comparable  with  a  confed- 
erative  republic,  and  not  unlike  that  of  "  la  grande  Republique 
de  I'Amerique  du  Nord."  These  dogs  are  confederate  under 
mutual  obligations.  Each  division  governs  itself  in  an  indepen- 
dent manner. 

It  is  the  custom  of  travelers  and  authors  always  to  mention 
these  dogs.  Compared  with  the  indolent  and  inconsequential 
curs  upon  the  streets  and  docks  of  Naples,  and  other  places, 
among  the  lazzaroni,  which  have  not  yet  attained  to  the  dignity  of 
a  literary  and  scientific  study,  they  are  honorably  mentioned. 

From  Miss  Pardoe  down  to  Edmondo  de  Amicis,  I  find  refer- 
ence to  these  dogs.  In  a.  d.  1835,  Miss  Pardoe  found  them  on  the 
threshold  of  her  entrance  into  the  city.  She  honors  them  in  the 
first  chapter  of  her  "City  of  the  Sultan"  by  this  mention: 

"  I  could  not  avoid  remarking  the  little  straw  huts  built  at  inter- 
vals along  the  streets  for  the  accommodation  and  comfort  of  the 
otherwise  homeless  dogs  that  throng  every  avenue  of  the  town. 
There  they  lay,  crouched  down  snugly,  too  much  chilled  to  wel- 
come us  with  the  chorus  of  barking  that  they  usually  bestow  on 
travelers.  In  addition  to  this  shelter,  food  is  every  day  dispensed 
by  the  inhabitants  to  the  vagrant  animals,  who,  having  no  specific 
owners,  are,  to  use  the  approved  phraseology  of  genteel  alms- 
asking,  '  wholly  dependent  on  the  charitable  for  support.'  And  it 
is  a  singular  fact  that  these  self-constituted  scavengers  exercise  a 
kind  of  internal  economy  which  exceeds  the  boundaries  of  mere 
instinct;  they  have  their  defined  "walks,"  or  haunts,  and  woe 
betide  the  strange  cur  who  intrudes  on  the  privileges  of  his 
neighbors;  he  is  hunted,  upbraided  with  growls  and  barks,  beset 
on  all  sides,  even  bitten  in  cases  of  obstmate  contumacy,  and 
universally  obliged  to  retreat  within  his  own  limits." 

Thirty-five  years  ago  I  wrote  a  book  entitled  "  Buckeye 
Abroad,"  in  which  several  chapters  were  given  to  the  "  Heart  of 
Mahometanism."  That  was  in  a.  D.  1851 — before  the  Crimean  War 
had  decimated  the  dogs.  I  can  recall  my  first  timid  step  as  we 
threaded  the  then,  and  still,  "dirty,  splashy,  badly  paved,  narrow, 
• 


THE  CITY  BESIEGED  B  Y  DOGS.  42 1 

<Joggy,  donkeyfied,  carriageless,  up-and-down  streets,  m  traversing 
which  you  cannot  look  at  anything  for  fear  of  having  your  head 
■cracked  against  the  burden  of  some  donkey  or  the  load  of  some 
head-shouldered  carrier,  or  for  fear  of  treading  upon  one  of  the 
many  thousand  brindled  dogs  who  act  the  part  of  scavengers  by 
day  and  play  that  of  howling  dervishes  by  night." 

At  that  time  the  dogs  were  in  the  hey-day  of  Abdul  Mcdjid's 
reign,  to  whom  all  now  refer  as  the  Arab  does  to  the  good  Haroun 
Al-Raschid,  of  Bagdad.  Little  did  I  then  think  cI  coming  hither, 
after  thirty-five  years,  for  a  long  stay,  or  that  some  day  a  bite  of 
one  of  these  "brindles"  would  give  rise  to  a  learned  study  on 
■errant  dogs  by  the  "  Hekim-bashi,"  or  head  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession of  the  empire,  and  chief  physician  of  the  son  and  succes- 
sor of  Abdul  Medjid,  of  happy  memory. 

These  dogs  are  of  a  peculiar  race.  They  are  a  cross  between 
the  jackal  and  the  wolf,  but  without  being  as  wild,  cruel  or  mis- 
-chievous  as  either.  They  are  very  intelligent  and  industrious. 
They  are  sweet  toward  the  natives  ;  they  are  hostile  to  strangers, 
whom  they  recognize  at  once  as  such.  This  is  most  observable 
in  the  retired  quarters,  inhabited  by  Mussulmans.  They  are 
numerous,  tumultuous  and  independent.  They  encumber  the 
streets.     This  has  been  so  immemorially. 

Constantinople  has  had  twenty-four  sieges.  It  has  been  taken 
six  times.  Alcibiades,  Constantine,  Dandolo,  Paleologos  and 
Mahmoud  II.  severally  succeeded  in  entenng  its  harbors  and 
gates,  but  the  dogs  have  survived  all  these  captures.  Grecian 
commanders  and  Roman  emperors,  Persian  chosroes,  Arabian 
•caliphs,  Venetian  doges  and  French  counts,  Bulgarian  krales  and 
Avarian  chakai's,  Slavonian  despots  and  Ottoman  sultans  have 
■come  and  gone,  have  besieged  and  been  repulsed,  or  have  captured 
and  held  the  city;  but  the  dogs  go  on  for  ever!  No  balance  of 
power,  no  Eastern  imbroglio,  has  disturbed  their  republican 
autonomy.  Their  "Home  Rule"  upsets  no  administration.  It 
disturbs  no  dynasty;  but  it  remains  stable  forever. 

A  veritable  colony  has  been  acquired  by  them  in  their  encroach- 
ments. They  have  the  right  of  domicile,  which  publicists  and 
architects  have  not  contested.  Whether  or  not,  bon  gr/,  mal  gr/, 
the  savants  are  forced  to  tolerate  the  colony.  They  do  not  know 
what  else  to  do.  Besides,  the  dogs  are  so  sugary  and  wheedling, 
they  so  insinuate  and  flatter,  that  their  work,  patriotism  and  serv- 


422  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

ices  make  them  acceptable  as  the  guardians  of  their  quarter  of 
the  city  against  robbers  and  malefactors.  They  make  the  streets 
healthy  by  disinfecting  them,  not  by  the  method  of  the  learned 
doctors  Pettenkofer  and  Koch,  but  by  devourmg  the  carrion  and 
garbage,  which  is  their  fare.  They  do  this  without  salary  from 
the  municipality,  and  are  thus  an  economical  and  sanitary  police. 

I  am  not  equal  to  understanding  the  methods  of  the  learned 
Pettenkofer,  or  his  medical  brother.  Doubtless  these  men  are 
some  of  Doctor  Mavroyeni's  German  friends,  for  he  studied 
when  young  at  a  German  university.  But  I  can  understand 
that  when  the  terrific  howls  are  raised,  about  sunrise,  around  the- 
Hotel  Royal,  at  Pera,  by  the  score  of  dogs  which  surround  that 
hostelry  with  their  republican  outcries,  there  is  a  contest  going^ 
on  between  the  incursive  garbage  gatherers  and  the  autono- 
mous dogs,  as  to  which  shall  have  the  first  examination  of  the 
piles  thrown  out  by  the  cooks  at  the  early  dawn.  All  Acheraunta 
seems  then  to  be  aroused  on  these  festive  occasions.  Sleep  flies 
from  weary  mortals.  The  sleeve  of  care  remains  raveled  out  in 
a  feverish  agony  of  wakefulness.  I  often  wish  then  that  the 
dogs  were  more  economical — of  noise. 

The  Doctor  refers  to  the  incident  recorded  of  Mahmoud  II.,, 
whom  he  properly  calls  the  reformer  of  Turkey.  He  commends 
him  as  the  courageous  exterminator  of  the  savage  horde  of  Jani- 
zaries. His  biography  is  written  on  the  headless  gravestones  of 
those  enemies  of  the  State  whom  he  slaughtered  mercilessly  upon 
the  classic  square  of  Stamboul ;  for  these  gravestones  were  by  his 
order  made  ignominious  by  being  made  turbanless.  He  tried  by 
his  irade  to  extirpate  another  race — the  boisterous  enemy  of  the 
European — the  dogs.  He  banished  them  to  the  deserted  isles  of 
Oxia  and  Prati,  whose  rocks  leap  out  of  the  Marmora,  within  five 
miles  of  our  villa  and  home  at  Prinkipo,  But  the  dogs  were  in 
sight  of  the  Seraskier  tower  of  Stamboul,  the  Genoese  tower  of 
Galata  and  the  graceful  minarets  of  Sophia  and  Achmed.  They 
soon,  by  instinct,  patriotism  or  hunger,  found  themselves  en  route 
by  sea  to  their  old  haunts. 

The  people  murmured  against  the  decree  of  banishment.  They" 
received  the  dogs  on  their  return  with  huzzas  !  This  happened^ 
notwithstanding  tlie  Koran  holds — like  our  Bible — that  the  dog  is 
an  unclean  animal.  Is  this  a  pious  reason  why  these  dogs  are  mas- 
terless?     Is   this   the  reason  why  they  are  republicans  of  the 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  DOGS.  423 

United  States  type — nameless,  homeless  and  only  bound  by  laws 
of  their  own  local  domicile  ?  Is  this  the  reason  why  the  Turk 
never  thinks  of  disturbing  them,  whether  howling  by  night  or 
sleeping  in  mid-street  by  day  ?  Why,  donkey  and  dervish,  horse 
and  hamal,  passenger  and  carriage,  mvariably  turn  out  to  avoid 
the  all-dominating  cur  ? 

When  the  dogs  returned  from  the  isles,  the  Sultan  was  not  so 
cruel  as  to  make  a  massacre  of  these  innocents,  as  he  had  of  the 
Janizaries,  Besides,  was  he  not  preoccupied  with  the  coming 
war,  which  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  of  Russia,  had  just  declared  ? 
So  that  the  dogs  were  left  out  in  the  streets  to  work  out  their  own 
autonomy,  regardless  of  Czar  or  Sultan. 

Doubtless  much  may  be  said  in  favor  of  these  animals,  of 
their  docility  and  their  training  to  charettes,  or  little  wagons,  and 
barrows.  They  become  useful  m  hunting,  from  their  exquisite 
scent.  Their  ratiocinative  faculty  is  shown  in  their  division  of 
quarters — following  the  divisions  of  the  city.  It  is  the  same  in 
the  suburbs  and  surrounding  villages — in  fact,  in  all  the  provinces 
of  the  empire.  When  they  were  sentenced  to  the  isles,  they 
showed  sagacity  by  swimming  to  the  mainland  or  introducing 
themselves  furtively  on  board  vessels  which  touched  at  the 
Isles.  They  become  not  only  attached  to  their  locality,  but 
to  one  another  by  reason  of  friendship  and  family  ties.  They 
love  and  aid  one  another.  They  do  not  fight  with  those  of 
other  quarters  that  let  them  alone.  Those  who  invade  them  meet 
a  bloody  reception  or  hospitable  graves.  Each  group  or  little  state 
elects  a  chief.  He  is  always  the  most  valorous.  He  is  generally 
calm,  haughty  and  grave  !  His  gravity  changes  in  a  fight.  He 
becomes  unbridled  when  pursuing  the  enemy  which  invades 
the  territory.  In  this  case  the  chief  manages  and  acts  as  a  mili- 
tary leader.  Besides,  he  exposes  himself  first  and  prodigally, 
which  a  general  does  not  always  do.  It  is  body  versus  body. 
Corps  d  corps.  He  is  followed  by  the  whole  tribe.  One  "'  the 
odd  and  comical  performances  in  these  clamorous  fights  is  the 
attitude  of  the  conquered  at  the  end  of  the  struggle  ;  for  the 
whipped  dog  lies  humbly  on  the  ground,  his  tail  between  his  legs, 
stuck  close  to  his  belly,  his  rear  drawn  aside  and  bent,  his  head 
cast  down  and  his  tongue  protruding  from  his  lips.  This  is  the 
white  flag.  It  is  the  sign  of  absolute  submission.  Upon  these 
conditions  the  conqueror  gives  him  freedom  to  depart  to  his  own 


424  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  AV  TURKEY. 

quarter,  or  to  inscribe  himself  among  the  citizens  of  the  conquer- 
ing commonwealth.     They  do  not  impose  ransom. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  dogs  of  Pera  have  noticed 
certain  peculiarities  that  belong  to  those  in  the  precincts 
between  Karakany  and  Tophane.  This  precinct  includes  Galata, 
where  the  dogs  are  numerous  and  various.  Here  they  are  best 
nourished,  or  at  least  some  of  them  ;  for,  strange  to  say,  beside 
the  clean  and  strong  dog,  with  sharp  fang,  bright  eye  and  martial 
air — ready  for  the  fray — is  another  who  is  as  thin  as  a  jackknife, 
dirty  and  cowardly,  and  cowardly  because  dirty.  His  tail  is 
between  his  legs.  He  quivers  in,  a  corner  at  the  approach  of 
everything.  How  is  this  accounted  for  ?  Some  of  these  dogs 
are  favorites  with  the  population.  The  butchers  and  the  fish- 
mongers give  them  food.  Being  well  fed,  they  are  more  belliger- 
ent. They  actually  make  themselves  the  champion  of  the  rights 
of  their  human  protectors.  If  any  other  dog  approaches  or  any 
harm  menaces  the  shop,  they  yelp  an  infernal  chorus  of  protesta- 
tion. This  shows  gratitude,  but  it  is  not  comfortable.  If  they  are 
well  fed  and  muffled  in  their  thick  and  oily  hair — cave  canem  ! 
Let  those  beware  who  intrude  upon  their  demesne.  Around  the 
butcher  shops  of  this  neighborhood,  they  understand  their  rela- 
tion to  the  butcher.  They  never  touch  any  of  his  meats,  except  by 
permission.  Although  the  butcher  sometimes  treats  them  roughly, 
using  his  boot  and  knife  freely,  when  there  is  a  bad  day's  sale,  or 
when  the  Ramazan  season  makes  a  poor  profit  ;  nevertheless,  his 
dogs  live  like  aristocrats  on  sheep  and  beef,  and  even  pork,  tur- 
key, goose  and  game.  But  the  poor,  miserable,  maimed,  blear- 
eyed  members  of  the  canine  community,  draw  from  the  stranger 
more  pity  than  contempt.     They  are  the  pariahs  of  the  race. 

The  reader  of  Eastern  poetry  and  history  remembers  how  full 
of  contentions  is  the  land  of  the  Orient  Not  to  speak  of  the  Tro- 
jan war;  not  to  recall  the  terrific  strife  of  the  frogs  and  mice, 
attributed  to  the  author  of  the  Iliad  ;  not  forgetting  the  Cru- 
sades and  the  Tartar  scourges — it  would  seem  as  if  all  animated 
nature  in  the  Orient  had  caught  the  belligerent  infection.  You 
pick  up  Mitford's  "  Greece  "  or  Gibbon's  "  Decline  and  Fall," 
and  the  very  scenes  of  battles  between  Greek  and  Turk,  Slav  (or 
Scythian),  Tartar  and  Persian,  are  repeated  at  certain  strategetic 
points  in  Thessaly,  Epirus,  in  the  Balkans,  in  Syria,  or  in  Anatolia. 
This  part  of  the  East  is  the  chronic  theatre  of  war.    My  bailiwick 


ORIENTAL  BELLIGERENCY. 


425 


has  been,  and  is  yet,  in  perpetual  unrest.  In  Albania  and  other 
provinces,  the  domestic  animals  copy  the  heroics  of  Pergamos. 
The  donkey  is  of  the  Orient.  Biblical,  classic  and  Arabic 
literature  praises  him,  as  well  for  his  industry  as  for  his  prowess. 
In  another  volume — "the  Pleasures  of  Prinkipo" — I  have  re- 
counted his  deeds  of  daring.  In  California  he  fights  successfully 
the  grizzly  bear.  In  the  East  he  has  seldom  to  do  more  than  his 
daily  labor.  Being  sure-footed  and  plucky,  he  is  my  choice 
rather  than  the  horse,  for  a  ride  over  the  rough  streets  of  the  city. 
Disguised  in  a  white  English  helmet,  I  have  mounted  this  "  meek 
child  of  misery,"  to  thread  the  dark  and  narrow  avenues,  and 
have  felt  safe,  in  his  company,  from  all  canine  attacks. 


DONKEY   RIDING  IN   THE  ORIENT. 


Our  word  "goose  "  in  the  Slav  language, and,  indeed,  in  all  lan- 
guages, has  as  its  forerunner  and  root  the  word  "  gus.''  That  bird 
has  an  ethnological  and  warlike  history,  only  surpassed  by  the 
Homeric  mice  and  frogs.  The  Eastern  goose  is  a  belligerent. 
Famous  as  it  is  for  its  sanguinary  character,  I  have  been  informed 
that  the  duck  is  quite  plucky  in  a  main.  Those  who  attend  these 
duck  and  goose  fights,  as  I  have  pictured  them,  insist  that  a  duck 
has  the  most  pluck. 

Upon  the  lake  at  Scutari,  in  Albania,  the  Skodari  ducks  are 
bred  in  great  numbers.  The  skins  of  their  heads  and  necks  are  made 
into  linings  of  cloaks  for  the  Pashas  of  that  country.  The  plu- 
mage gives  them  loveliness  as  well  as  costliness  ;  but  before  their 


426  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

heads  are  off  and  their  plumage  plucked  there  is  many  a  fight 
between  these  heroic  birds.  The  mountaineers  catch  from  the 
very  duck  the  courage  to  contend. 

How  tame  are  these  heroic  conflicts  of  man  and  beast  com- 
pared to  those  of  the  dogs  of  Pera!  Galata  is  their  seat  of  war. 
Not  an  hour  passes  without  the  miserable  rout  raising  a  quarrel 
with  a  strange  dog;  or,  if  some  one  happens  to  pass  swinging  a 
cane,  or  on  horseback,  or  who  is  dressed  in  an  odd  garb — which  is 
not  so  rare,  either,  in  that  part  of  the  city — the  quarrel  which  thus 
starts  rages  along  the  whole  line  from  Galata  to  Tophane.  It  is 
terrible.  From  every  side  the  dogs  rush  upon  the  battle-field ! 
Large  dogs,  small  dogs,  strong  dogs,  weak  dogs,  nimble  dogs, 
lame  dogs,  hairless  dogs,  tailless  dogs,  wheezy  dogs,  skin-and-bone 
dogs,  eyeless  dogs — all  come  at  the  call  of  their  canine  captam 
and  the  sound  of  battle,  and  prepare  for  its  consequences.  Can 
the  passenger  pursue  his  way  on  such  occasions  in  these  nar- 
row streets  ?  No  :  he  is  blockaded.  The  broil  which  results  is 
enough  to  give  the  nightmare  to  any  one  unaccustomed  to  the 
tumult.  It  can  be  heard  for  miles  around.  The  battle  never 
ceases  until  some  man  of  courage  ends  the  strife  with  a  cudgel. 
The  passer-by,  when  one  of  the  fights  occurs,  escapes  well  if 
he  is  not  detained  more  than  half  an  hour.  If  he  happens  to 
be  a  tourist,  he  is  sure  to  be  bespattered  with  dirt  while  making  a 
note  of  these  performances  in  his  memorandum-book. 

In  a  Canadian  city  an  instruction  was  issued,  that  the  police 
when  they  heard  dogs  barking  at  night  should  wake  up  the  owner 
and  stop  the  racket.  What  a  splendid  opportunity  such  a  police 
would  have  in  Constantinople;  for  of  all  the  noises  permitted  by 
a  serene  Providence,  those  of  the  canine  population  are  the  worst. 
When,  in  addition,  you  hear  m  the  night  the  noises  made  by  the 
amiable  beckdjie,  it  is  beyond  human  patience;  yet  this  beckdji^ 
is  the  policeman  himself.  He  carries  a  loaded  oaken  staff  shod 
with  iron  at  the  end.  It  is  heavy.  I  made  friends  of  the  beckd- 
jie of  our  neighborhood  to  test  its  heft.  Through  the  night  you 
are  waked  up  by  the  ringing,  metallic  defiance  of  the  stone  against 
the  beating  of  this  staff.  It  is  this  staff  which  arouses  the  dogs; 
it  is  this  staff  which  evokes  their  yells  of  dissonance;  it  is  this  staff, 
symbol  of  vigilance  and  quietude,  which  makes  the  dogs  the 
masters  of  the  city. 

In  some  parts  of  the  Ottoman  territory  the  dog  seems  to  be 


A   DOG  FIGHT   IN   CONSTANTINOPLE. 
4»7 


428  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

the  chief  occupant  of  the  country.  He  makes  his  occupation 
known  by  his  noise.  Classical  people  call  these  dogs  Molossian, 
but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  that  famous  race  is  as  extinct 
as  the  old  Irish  grey-hound.  The  dogs  which  I  saw  in  Egypt  are 
bold,  determined  animals.  They  are  unlike  the  race  which 
inhabits  the  cities.  There  is  a  class  of  Albanian  dogs  that  is 
good  for  hunting  purposes.  The  moment  you  are  at  a  disadvan- 
tage in  meeting  these  dogs  of  the  country,  they  have  no  hesitation 
in  flying  at  you.  If  you  stoop  for  a  stone,  or  even  make  a 
motion,  you  may  disperse  them,  even  if  they  are  quite  a  company. 
These  beasts  are  not  as  a  general  thmg  beautiful.  They  have  a 
•dun  color.  They  are  often  used  on  guard  at  sheep-folds.  They 
are  of  the  same  type  that  prevails  over  Turkey,  Greece  and 
Egypt. 

Is  there  nothing  to  be  said  in  their  favor  ?  They  have  an  advo- 
cate in  Doctor  Mavroyeni.  They  are  faithful  guardians  of  their 
quarter.  They  become  attached  to  its  inhabitants.  The  females 
are  tender  mothers.  When  their  little  puppies  die  they  are  loath 
to  separate  from  them.  They  try  to  warm  them;  they  lick  them 
and  cry  bitterly  during  many  days,  because  they  cannot  reanimate 
them.  The  males  are  comparatively  indifferent.  To  be  sure,  they 
love  the  family.  They  are  susceptible  of  strong  attachments 
to  the  females. 

*'  I  possess,"  says  the  Doctor,  "a  dog  of  this  race.  He  was 
born  in  my  garden.  He  is  of  this  stock,  even  to  the  fourth 
generation.  He  becomes  a  watch-dog — superb,  grand  and  vigor- 
ous. He  is  never  maltreated.  He  is  as  proud  as  a  Spanish  hidalgo, 
without  having  the  sixteen  quarterings.  He  is  courageous.  He 
carries  his  tail  well  furnished  with  tawny  hair,  with  crest  exalted! 
He  chooses  two  females  of  the  yellow  robe.  He  likes  the  golden 
shade.  For  them  he  cultivates  the  toilet.  He  is  neat  and  clean. 
He  nourishes  them  well.  He  brings  them  the  tidbits  from  the 
kitchen,  which  he  frequents.  His  wives  owe  and  pay  him  obedi- 
ence. They  are  obliged  to  remain  upon  the  steps  of  the  gateway 
of  the  mansion — upon  a  straw  mat  that  he  has  dragged  thither 
and  placed  at  their  disposition.  If  they  wish  to  take  the  air,  they 
must  be  gallanted  by  none  other  than  himself;  while  he,  on  the 
contrary,  may  philander  alone,  make  court  to  other  females  of  the 
quarter,  and  give  sanguinary  battles  to  his  rivals." 

What  does  this  prove  ?   That  dogs  are  as  adventurous  and  ego- 


ATTACHMENTS  OF  DOGS  TO  MEN. 


429 


tistic  as  men  ?  Yes:  and  more  happy.  They  are  not  consumed  by 
unbridled  ambition.  They  are  not  mad  for  riches  and  luxury. 
They  content  themselves  with  little.  They  love  without  reserve^ 
and  even  criticise  the  man  who  is  familiar  with  them,  and  who 
bestows  his  sympathy  upon  them.  They  devote  their  lives  to 
the  master.  They  become  his  slave.  They  do  even  mean  actions 
for  the  master.  They  allow  themselves  to  be  badly  treated  and 
even  beaten,  without  a  yelp  or  murmur  when  on  his  behalf. 

But  when  the  dog  sees  the  person  whom  he  has  elected  as  his 
patron — somewhat  as  the  plebeian  elected  the  patrician  at  Rome — 
discontented  and  vexed,  he  lowers  his  tail  and  ears;  he  conceals 
himself  all  abashed,  and  that  too  without  beingangry.  A  moment 
after,  he  returns  to  humiliate  himself  anew  before  the  master,  by 
lying  on  his  back.  He  almost  weeps  in  sympathy,  and  then 
strives  to  coax  his  master,  by  his  caresses,  to  forget  all  disap- 
pointments and  anxieties. 

Besides  this  passionate  affection  for  man,  the  dog  of  these 
streets  feels  a  friendship  for  his  own  race.  One  meets  dogs  often 
who  are  constant  friends,  and  who  aid  each  othfer  all  through  their 
lives  and  until  death  do  them  part. 

These  dogs  do  not  live  as  savages,  without  faith  or  law.  They 
have  certain  laws  which  are  neither  written  nor  dictated  by  man, 
but  which  are  innate,  instinctive  and  graven  in  their  hearts  by  the 
Creator.  Thus,  they  make  war  only  against  those  who  transgress 
adventurously — those  who  are  impelled  by  bad  instincts  and  love 
of  pillage.  In  the  quarter  which,  like  Pera,  is  only  inhabited  by 
Europeans,  the  dog  is  almost  always  hostile  to  them;  above  all 
when  the  foreigners  walk  with  a  haughty  gait!  He  is  equally 
hostile  to  cats,  to  camels,  to  bears,  and  to  the  Bohemians  who 
show  the  bears,  as  well  as  to  all  heterogeneous  animals  who  adven- 
ture into  the  city.  In  acting  thus  he  executes  the  martial  law 
which  governs  him.  These  laws  are,  it  appears,  inexorable 
and  Draconian,  though  not  established  by  a  Lycurgus. 

These  dogs  lead  a  Bohemian  life  without  being  altogether  wan- 
derers. They  are  very  joyous,  finding  abundance  to  live  upon;  for, 
outside  the  carrion  and  the  filth  in  which  they  delight,  and  which 
serves  them  as  a  side-dish  of  condiments  of  highest  taste,  they  live 
on  public  charity,  which  provides  liberally  for  all  their  needs  with- 
out humiliating  them.  They  are  true  Oriental  beggars.  One  makes 
you  think  of  the  other.     In  the  Orient,  as  in  some  cities  of  Italy, 


430  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

the  beggar's  occupation  is  not  a  degrading  nor  debasing  one. 
Beggars — all  of  them — are  proud  enough.  They  extend  the  hand 
with  a  certain  air  of  dignity,  without  any  embarrassment.  They 
sing  prayers  or  canticles,  more  or  less  harmonious,  addressed  to 
God  for  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  charitable  souls,  whom 
they  assure  that  all  they  do  for  poverty  they  do  for  God,  who  will 
recompense  them  for  it  a  hundred-fold  in  this  world  and  in  the 
next! 

Among  the  beggars  wandering  from  one  quarter  to  another, 
in  the  city  and  in  the  country,  there  are  some  who  are  rich.  They 
are  established  in  comfortable  houses  in  certain  out-of-the-v/ay 
districts.  They  are  recognized  as  a  special  community,  with  fran- 
chises. They  form  a  body.  They  are  a  junta,  recognized  by 
the  state  and  directed  by  a  superior  officer,  whom  they  call,  in 
Turkish,  Dilendjiler  Kazassker,  This  chief  has  a  little  ministry 
under  his  orders.  He  charges  regularly  certain  dues,  fixed  by 
law,  which  the  beggars  pay  without  murmuring.  Of  all  these,  the 
most  impertinent  are  the  Greek  beggars.  They  are  very  numer- 
ous. They  have  tbeir  general.  The  present  chief  is  a  lame  fel- 
low, large  and  very  strong.  He  is  regarded  with  respect.  They 
elect  a  general  from  time  to  time,  according  to  events,  by  a 
majority  of  votes  taken  in  their  regular  meetings,  which  take 
place  twice  every  year,  at  the  commencement  or  end  of  the  two 
leading  seasons,  summer  and  winter.  These  beggars  are  very 
bold,  and  it  often  happens  that  they  insult  or  revile  any  one  who 
refuses  them  a  trifle.  They  have  a  saint  as  a  patron,  whom  they 
celebrate  every  year  with  great  pomp,  having  a  pontifical  mass 
performed  in  the  orthodox  Church  of  St.Constantine,  atPera,  near 
their  general  quarter.  On  the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  their 
saint,  all  the  beggars  dress  themselves  in  their  new  fine  clothes  of 
glittering  cloth,  put  on  the  fez  furnished  with  a  large  tuft, 
gravely  assemble  and  lend  to  the  circumstance  a  proud  deport- 
ment, carrying  their  sticks,  as  emblems  of  the  noble  profession  of 
which  they  are  proud  to  be  members. 

Beggary  is  a  profession.  It  is  recognized  by  the  state.  It  is 
valued  by  that  part  of  the  population  who,  bound  to  ancient 
uses  and  customs,  are  unwilling  to  understand  the  ideas  of  modern 
civilization,  pretending  that  civilization  by  no  means  tends  to 
render  happy  the  people  whom  it  has  led  away  and  rendered  sub- 
ject to  its  laws. 


now  TO  ABATE  THE  NUISANCE. 


431 


Eh  bien  !  Putting  aside  these  festivals  and  solemnities,  we  find 
a  great  resemblance  between  the  beggars  and  the  dogs  of  the 
streets  of  the  Orient, 

Public  charity,  which  provides  for  the  needs  of  both,  takes 
especial  care  of  such  of  those  dogs  as  have  puppies. 

The  absolute  freedom  between  the  sexes,  and  the  possibility 
of  always  finding  nourishment  and  water  in  sufficient  quantity, 
which  the  inhabitants  take  care  to  furnish  them  daily — these  are 
the  causes  why  madness  among  dogs  is  so'rare  in  Turkey.  It  is  the 
absolute  liberty  which  the  dogs  enjoy,  the  extreme  facility  with 
which  they  accomplish  their  physical  needs,  and  the  absence  of 
the  muzzle,  which  are  in  all  probability  the  principal  if  not  the  only 
causes  of -the  relative  rarity  of  madness  among  the  wandering 
dogs  of  the  cities  of  the  East. 

I  should  like  to  leave  the  question  to  Mr.  Bergh,  who  is  the 
head  of  the  society  in  New  York  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to 
animals,  whether,  in  spite  of  the  good  qualities  of  these  animals, 
their  presence  should  be  allowed  in. the  heart  of  a  great  city, 
where  their  howlings  by  night,  and  their  lazy,  lounging  presence 
in  the  way  of  the  public  by  day,  render  them  an  intolerable 
nuisance. 

How  would  our  philanthropist  abate  it  ?  By  deporting  them 
to  the  isles,  or  reducing  their  numbers  by  death  ?  Would  he  raise 
a  rebellion  in  their  model  republic?  It  is  almost  impossible  to 
disturb  them,  even  when  a  carriage  is  roaring  over  the  unevenly 
paved  streets.  They  rise  barely  in  time  to  save  their  bones  and 
lives.  They  lie  in  groups,  in  lines,  or  in  rings,  sometimes  a  dozen 
together.  The  elements  disturb  them  not,  no  more  than  man  or 
donkey.  Let  it  rain  or  snow,  they  lie  there  still.  Some,  I  notice, 
dig  into  the  earth  where  it  is  possible,  and  make  a  snug  hole;  others 
climb  up  on  benches  or  on  window-sills,  and  in  a  pretty  circle,  tail 
to  head,  sleep  on.  In  the  old  city  of  Stamboul  they  board  out 
The  Mussulman  shares  his  meals  with  them.  In  Pera  and  Galata 
they  have  to  forage  about,  and  hence  the  intolerable  din.  When 
their  sentinels  on  the  advanced  posts  make  report  that  a  strange 
dog  has  passed  the  frontier,  and  has  seized  a  bone  that  is  contra- 
band, the  fury  begins.  If  it  be  dry  and  hot  weather,  such  a  dust 
is  raised  that  neither  the  dead  nor  living  are  discernible.  In  the 
Levantine  quarters,  as  at  Galata  and  Pera,  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
violence  showered  on  them  from  passers-by,  shop-boys  and  oth- 


432  DIVERSIONS  OP  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

ers.  The  least  kindly  caress,  notice  or  token  of  good-will  toward 
them  will,  at  times,  bring  the  whole  canine  state  about  you  with 
symptoms  of  delight,  eyes  shining  with  pleasure,  tails  on  the  wag 
and  the  body  curving  into  a  circle  about  your  legs,  as  if  to  detain 
you  for  their  own  special  delight.  It  is  hard  to  resist  these  ways. 
Two  families  have  been  raised  in  the  alleyway  under  our  Ameri- 
can escutcheon.  They  know  all  our  people,  from  the  Minister 
down  to  the  capoudji,  who  is  our  messenger.  After  two  months' 
absence  in  Egypt  last  winter,  on  my  return  I  was  accorded  a 
reception  by  them  worthy  of  the  great  republic  whose  autonomy 
is  copied  after  theirs. 

In  addition  to  their  troubles  in  maintaining  their  right  of 
domicile,  the  agonies  of  famine  sometimes  drive  them  to  eat  what 
a  buzzard  or  a  hog  would  disdain.  Some  good  Turks  leave  leg- 
acies for  the  dogs  in  their  vicinity.  More  frequently  they 
distribute  meat  to  them.  In  some  of  the  places  there  is  a  dole  of 
bread  for  them,  in  compensation  for  their  playing  police  upon  the 
streets.  They  certainly  keep  the  beckdjie,  or  policeman,  alive. 
When  he  comes  round  rattling  his  long,  heavy  oak  club  upon  the 
resonant  pavements,  the  dogs  herald  his  presence  by  such  long 
howls  as  Campbell's  poetic  wolf  made  on  Onalaska's  shore. 

Sometimes  they  commit  suicide  by  beating  their  heads  out 
against  the  walls.  Now  and  then,  some  people  who  are  anxious 
for  quiet  in  their  vicinity,  or  whose  friends  are  ill,  kindly  pitch 
little  pellets  of  bread  and  poison  to  the  dogs.  Strychnine  does 
the  work  of  destruction  only  temporarily.  The  quarter  is  soon 
filled  up  from  the  fecundity  of  other  portions  of  the  city. 

The  shepherd  and  watch  dogs,  even  if  of  the  same  breeds 
are  trained  to  be  fierce  to  strangers.  We  experienced  their  resent- 
ment in  Upper  Egypt.  In  the  little  mud  villages  they  would 
rush  out  furiously.  Although  we  were  mounted  on  donkeys,  we 
were  not  safe  from  their  onslaughts.  Our  kavasses  and  guides 
had  to  be  on  the  alert.  While  in  Cairo  I  bought  a  cane  which, 
when  you  swish  it,  out  flies  a  dirk  a  foot  long.  It  was  for  the  dogs 
of  the  city;  but  when  I  was  attacked  by  a  dog  in  Prinkipo — of 
course,  the  cane  was  innocently  reposing  in  the  rack.  Sir  Edward 
Thornton,  the  British  Minister  here,  was  riding  out  in  the  suburbs 
of  Pera  last  spring,  when  a  shepherd  dog  of  fierce  aspect  flew  at 
him.  The  horse  shied  suddenly, and  the  Minister  was  thrown  and 
seriously  injured.  His  collar  bone  was  broken.    This  led  to  much 


ULYSSES  AND  "ARGUS.' 


433 


discussion  about  the  dogs  of  the  city,  but  this  incident  was  not 
pertinent  to  them.  'J'hey  are  not  aggressive.  There  are  other 
reasons  for  their  expulsion  or  decapitation. 

As  the  final  appeal  on  the  other  side  of  the  question,  it  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  the  East, in  Homei's  grand  epic,  has  glorified 
"Argus,"  the  dog  of  Ulysses,  os  faithful  among  the  faithless — a 
fit  associate  of  the  patient  and  beloved  Penelope,  while  Ulysses 
wandered  afar.  After  twenty  years  he  knew  his  lord  ;  and  by  all 
the  dallying  affection  of  his  nature,  strove  to  crawl,  kiss  his  feet, 
and,  by  tail  and  eye,  to  express  his  joy.  "  He  takes  a  last  look, 
and  having  seen  him,  dies." 

The  American  Indian  joins  with  Homer  in  praising  the  dog  ; 
for  he  hopes  to  have  his  faithful  dog  bear  him  company  to  the 
happy  hunting-grounds. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 


DIVERSIONS   IN    PERA. 


During  the  fall  of  1885  and  the  winter  of  1885-86  we  sojourn 
in  Pera,  at  the  Hotel  Royal,  The  hotel  is  near  the  offices  of  the 
Legation.  The  question  is  often  asked  :  "  How  do  you  pass  the 
time?"  I  answer  that  we  never  tire  of  the  endless  and  dra- 
matic transformation  scenes  of  the  street;  I  mean  so  far  as  the 
population  is  concerned.  There  is  interesting  employment  for 
leisure  hours  in  watching  the  contrasts  in  the  daily  observances 
of  life.  A  street-railway  jostles  the  sedan-chair;  a  steamship 
wheels  about  a  vessel  as  ancient  in  style  as  the  Roman  galleys; 
a  carriage  rumbles  into  a  flock  of  goats  and  sheep,  whose  shep- 
herd has  on  a  veritable  sheep-skin;   and  so  on. 

In  our  neighborhood  in  Pera  everything  is  sold.  Much  quar- 
reling goes  on,  but  no  fighting.  The  wrangles  grow  out  of 
the  prices  and  the  conditions  of  the  bargain.  The  sugar-dealer 
and  confectioner  are  generally  Persians.  Children  on  their  way 
to  school  stop  and  open  their  gold-embroidered  school-bags  to 
get  their  para  to  buy  their  candy.  Albanians  compete  with  the 
Persian,  and  the  Osmanli,  too,  when  it  comes  to  the  cold  jelly  or 
ground  rice  and  milk  and  clotted  cream.  All  this  traffic  goes  on 
in  the  street.  There  is  nothing  in  Constantinople  that  is  hid 
except  the  harem. 

You  turn  to  look  in  another  direction.  Some  one  is  crying  out: 

*'  Oh,  ye  merciful!  Six  oranges  and  five  lemons!  Soul  of  my 
lamb!  Lamb  of  my  soul!  Who  will  take  the  rest  of  my  prov- 
ender?" 

Then  the  vinegar-man  comes.  He  is  by  no  means  a  man  of 
sour  aspect.  He  and  the  chimney-sweep  join  purses  and  buy  out 
the  orange-man;  and  yet  in  one  moment,  without  a  premonition, 
the  call  of  the  Muezzin  comes  shrilly  up  the  valley  and  from 
many  minarets  beyond  and  around.  At  once  traffic  ceases  and 
devotions  begin.     Even  the  Christian  population,  copying  from 


MARKETS  AND  BEGGARS. 


435 


the  Turk,  become  reverent.  The  prayer  said,  the  traffic  is 
resumed.  I  am  arrested  by  some  cry  that  sounds  hke  "  Ameri- 
canico!  "  What  does  it  mean  ?  It  is  from  a  Jew.  He  carries  a 
heavy  bale.  It  is  the  product  of  Lowell.  It  is  unbleached 
calico!     America  forever!     Furnishing  the  Orient  with  fabrics! 

At  every  corner  you  meet  those  who  sell  all  kinds  of  sweets. 
These  sweets  are  in  every  imaginable  shape,  from  fig-paste  and 
bonbons  to  the  fine  fruits,  such  as  pomegranates  and  oranges, 
with  nuts,  cooked  and  raw.  There  is  a  large  market  upon  the 
streets  near  the  English  Legation.  It  is  odorous  with  fish;  for 
these  are  not  the  enchanted  fish  so  much  worshipped  in  the  Greek 
Church.  Still  there  is  a  great  variety,  from  the  mackerel,  turbot, 
red  mullet  and  soles,  to  the  unknown  shining  and  many-hued 
finny  creatures.  Here,  too,  are  sold  the  pilaff  made  of  rice,  and 
the  yahoort,  or  sour  milk,  as  well  as  snails  in  abundance,  which 
are  eaten  by  the  Greeks.  The  oysters  sold  in  the  market  are  of 
a  coppery  quality,  and  too  inferior  to  be  for  a  moment  regarded 
by  the  American  palate. 

The  striking  peculiarity  of  Pera,  as  well  as  of  Stamboul,  is  the 
freedom  with  which  food  is  consumed  by  all  classes  in  the  street. 
The  meals  are  taken  on  the  wing.  The  coffee-houses,  cooking 
establishments  and  restaurants  are  not  only  open  all  the  time, 
but  they  are  almost  upon  the  street  itself.  It  is  not  unusual  to  see 
respectable  families,  even  in  their  vehicles,  stop  upon  the  street, 
quaff  their  glass  of  water  from  an  itinerant  vender,  carve  their 
long  loaves  of  bread,  or  eat  their  '*  simits,"  or  circular  pretzels,  or 
their  flat,  unleavened  cakes. 

It  is  not  unusual  within  the  city  and  suburbs,  wherever  groups 
are  gathered,  to  see  beggars.  They  are  not  pretty  to  see,  but 
they  are  pictures  of  the  East,  from  which  Constantinople  is  not 
exempt.  The  Moslem  used  to  believe  in  keeping  beggars  around, 
to  improve  his  charitable  intent.  If  the  beggar  be  a  lunatic,  or  a 
weak  brother,  he  is  regarded  as  specially  favored  by  Allah,  and 
to  be  favored  by  men.  His  body  may  be  on  earth — his  intellect 
elsewhere.  Some  of  these  beggars  are  quite  popular.  There  is 
an  old  habitu^  of  Pera,  Loto  Giorgi.  He  walks  about,  talking,  for 
lack  of  better  society,  with  himself.  He  gesticulates,  to  give 
emphasis  to  his  jabber.  He  has  a  habit  of  frightening  women 
and  children  by  a  sudden  appearance,  and  howling  in  their  ears. 
He  is  not  so  great  a  fool  but  that  he  knows  when  the  government 


436 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


employees  are  paid  off.     If  he  receives  a  rebuff  when  he  demands 

money,  he  gives  a  comic  response  : 

"  At  bashi — at  bashi!   At  the  beginning  of  the  month,  ha !  ha!" 
Off  he  goes,  humming  and  whistling.      He  used  to  be  about 

the  municipal  garden  gate — until  he  became  a  nuisance.     He  is 

abated   by  sending  him  to  the  asylum.     This  is  an  evidence  of 

reform. 

There  is  a  mendicant  who  is  also  a  member  of  the  begging 


A  TURKOMAN   AND  HIS   BEARS. 


corporate  body,  for  there  is  such  a  system,  well  organized.  Hur- 
pani  is  his  name.  He  dances  slow  steps  in  a  circle  to  a  silly 
song,  until  he  tumbles  over  exhausted  upon  one  of  the  spectators. 
He  makes  money  out  of  his  lazy  music  and  idiotic  dance.  He 
has  provided  for  his  old  age,  and  is  less  frequently  seen  than  for- 
merly. 

The  beggars  are  not   so  attractive  as  some  other  animals. 
From  the  forests  of  Mount  Ida,  in  Bithynia,  there  come  bears, 


MUSIC  AND  THEATRES.  437 

generally  two  in  a  company,  to  gladden  the  gamins  of  Constanti- 
no}3le.  They  have  a  Kurd  for  master.  They  compete  with  each 
other  to  gratify  an  admirmg  circle.  The  servants  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, with  their  small  coins,  surround  them  and  their  Asiatic 
hairy  master.  It  is  the  only  menagerie  which  the  city  furnishes 
for  the  delight  of  its  grocery-boys  and  Greek  maidens;  but  is  it  not 
•classic  ?  Does  not  Mount  Ida  rise  to  the  swelling  of  the  voiceful 
Epic  ?  The  bears  dance  to  the  tabor's  sound,  sometimes  in  the 
street,  but  more  frequently  over  the  gfaves  and  amidst  the  tum- 
bling and  broken  tombstones  which  mark  the  cemetery  of  the 
Turk.  The  animals  pass  round  a  contribution-box.  When  they 
•do  not  get  a  "surplus"  they  growl.  In  this  they  are  human. 
This  performance  is  not  a  fair  show  of  what  Pera  can  do  in  a  his- 
trionic way. 

Theatrical  amusements  are  not  neglected.  There  were  rival 
troupes  here  all  the  winter  of  1885-86.  The  Petits  Champs  Opera- 
House  came  out  ahead.  It  was  led  by  Mrs.  Byron,  a  Bostonese. 
The  other  troupe,  an  Italian,  was  led  by  Lenora  Monte.  Both 
were  managers  and  prime  donne.  The  Italian  left,  with  her  ward- 
robe, between  two  days.  Mrs.  Byron  has  had  the  satisfaction  of 
giving  a  benefit  for  the  impecunious  and  deserted  troupe  of  her 
unsuccessful  rival. 

Mrs.  Byron  has  sung  for  the  Sultan  at  the  Yildiz  palace. 
He  and  all  of  his  are  fond  of  music,  and  thrice  she  has  been 
summoned  to  please  the  royal  ear  and  taste.  When  she  sings 
there,  all  the  ladies  of  the  harem  peep  out  of  their  rooms  to  hear, 
for  they  are  not  only  musicians  themselves,  but  fond  of  dulcet 
things,  including  the  confectionery  of  sweet  Italian  sounds.  The 
Sultan  calls  Mrs.  Byron  "  La  petite  Americaine,"  and  has  be- 
stowed upon  her  some  nice  largesses.  The  new  Opera- House 
which  Sefiora  Monte  left  is  now  rejoicing  in  a  French  vaudeville 
company  from  Paris.  "  Mme.  Boniface  "  was  represented  to  a 
full  house.  Good  loges  cost  each  two  liras  Turque,  or  about  $9. 
The  prices  are  about  the  same  as  at  the  Casino  in  New  York, 

The  instrumental  music  with  which  the  people  are  regaled  in 
summer  is  well  done  at  the  Petits  Champs  Garden.  This  garden 
occupies  the  spot  of  an  ancient  Turkish  cemetery,  and  there  must 
be  many  a  Moslem  dry-bone  rattling  by  no  means  harmonious  with 
the  cadences  of  the  brass  band  of  European  composition.  The 
music  inside  of  the  Opera-House  within  the  garden  is  above  the 


438  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

average.     It  makes  one  forget   the  shabby  scenery,  the  vexing 
chorus,  the  screaming  prima  donna  and  the  terrible  tenor. 

Have  the  Greeks  and  Turks  no  theatres  ?  Yes:  there  is  a 
Turkish  theatre  in  Stamboul,  but  the  plays  are  modeled  on  the 
Chinese  pattern.  The  plot  runs  through  several  aeons,  and  the 
actors  are,  therefore,  long-winded.  I  was  invited  to  go  and  see  a 
play  there,  as  it  was  mtended  to  be  a  benefit  for  the  Turkish 
*'  High  School." 

Alas,  for  the  degeneracy  of  the  human  ear  !  If  the  everlasting 
drawl  and  tom-tom  of  the  Turkish  cafes  furnish  real  music,  rele- 
gate me  to  the  Petits  Champs  at  night,  when  a  rag-picker  or  a 
stray  dog  invades  the  sacred  precinct  of  the  naturalized  canine 
habitants. 

The  Greeks  have  an  excellent  theatre  in  Pera.  The  actors 
know  their  business.  They  are  graceful  elocutionists,  and  the 
plays  are  superbly  set.  The  old  Greek  dramatic  art  comes  out, 
and  the  fine  intonations,  quick  wit  or  sublime  pathos  are  not 
wanting.  "  How  do  I  know?  "  Well,  I  took  along  with  me  a 
Greek.  He  prompted  me  with  a  quickness  of  translation  that  left 
nothing  to  be  desired. 

*'  Do  the  Mahometan  women  attend  the  theatres  ?  "  Of  that 
I  cannot  fully  speak.  They  are  net  backward  in  being  forward, 
in  pleasant  weather,  when  they  go  to  the  **  Sweet  Waters. "  There 
they  coquette  in  a  simple,  child-like  way  with  Ottoman  and  other 
dudes.  But  as  a  general  rule,  the  Turkish  ladies  do  not  stay  up 
late  o'  nights.  They  are  domesticated.  This  is  a  proof  and  a 
sign  of  their  virtue.  I  read  in  an  old  Mahometan  book  the  other 
day  that,  while  its  author  would  not  say  that  all  Mahometan 
ladies  were  virtuous,  for  he  held  that  virtue  and  vice  are  two 
sisters,  "still,"  said  he,  **the  former  is  fair  and  the  latter  is 
otherwise."  No  nation  has  ever  been  uninfluenced  by  the  two 
sisters.  But  the  Mahometan  law,  by  its  restraints  in  domestic 
affairs,  prevents  increase  in  vice  and  decrease  in  virtue.  "  The 
Mahometan  ladies,"  he  says,  "  are  occupied  in  needlework,  in 
religious  duties  five  times  a  day,  and  in  household  affairs.  They 
have  no  leisure  to  think  of  admirers.  Their  marriages  are 
arranged  by  their  parents,  who  are  their  best  friends.  The  bride 
may  see  her  future  lord  from  a  loop-hole  before  she  is  wedded, 
but  her  marriage  is  free  from  contamination  or  the  dread  of  it. 
In  short,  seclusion  secures  the  Moslem  women  from  those  delu- 


AMUSEMENTS  AND  PROMENADES. 


439 


sions  which  irritate  the  mind  with  fleeting  joys  and  leave  behind 
the  sting  of  remorse.  The  triumphs  of  beauty  not  being  theirs, 
the  pang  of  lost  charms  is  not  added  to  the  sensation  of  fading 
power." 

Is  this  not  a  clever  plea  from  the  Salem-lik  for  the  Harem- 
lik  ?     It  is  the  best  plea  possible. 

The  male  Turk  is,  however,  not  averse  to  the  opera.  The  fez 
caps  are  plentiful  when  Mrs.  Byron  sings  in  "  Trovatore  "  or  as 
Margaret.  This  was  seen  in  a  patriotic  way  the  other  night.  A 
special  performance  was  given  under  the  auspices  of  the  Legations 
of  all  the  countries,  and  of  a  committee  to  aid  the  Turkish  sol- 
diers now  in  the  winter  "field"  on  the  borders  of  Greece,  Bul- 
garia and  Servia.  The  "  Ballo  in  Maschera,"  with  parts  of 
"Lucia  "and  "  Faust,"  were  given  by  the  company.  The  per- 
formance was  a  fete.  Even  the  Russian  Ambassador  cheered 
Donizetti  and  the  "Sultan's  March."  The  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  Said  Pasha,  made  himself  at  home  in  the  American 
Envoy's  loge,  and  won  all  hearts  by  his  sympathies  for  his  hearth- 
less  and  homeless  countrymen  in  their  sad  winter  quarters.  On 
this  occasion,  the  Opera-House  was  half  full  of  Turkish  Pashas, 
Beys  and  Effendis. 

"  What  effect  did  this  music  produce  upon  their  sense  and 
sensibilities  ? "  I  know  the  Turk  is  pervious  to  the  charm  of 
melody.  He  makes  a  good  musician,  whether  in  a  Dervish  stance 
or  in  a  brass  band.  I  was  curious  to  watch  the  effect  of  our  fair 
American's  tones  upon  the  so-called  Unspeakable  One  !  Once 
I  read  an  unsophisticated  narrative  given  by  a  Moslem  of  his  first 
adventure  into  a  London  opera-house.  After  describing  the 
boxes  in  their  semicircular  fashion,  and  the  hundreds  of  lights,  at 
one  time  reduced  to  the  dimness  of  night,  and  at  another  made  to 
shine  like  daylight,  he  was  astonished  to  see  the  curtain  pulled  up 
and  two  very  handsome  ladies  appear  very  indecently  dressed. 
An  old  man,  their  supposed  father,  appears  on  the  stage  !  "  They 
sing,"  he  said,  "some  historical  ballad,  and  dance  expertly. 
They  then  tantalize  the  assembly,  but  we  could  not  understand 
it  at  all.     It  was  not  music." 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting,  now  that  Pera  is  brought  by  the 
aid  of  steam  within  a  fortnight  of  America,  to  bring  Oriental 
humors,  amusements  and  manners  within  the  purview  of  our 
American  eye.     The  query  always  returns  : 


440  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

How  do  these  multifarious  people  amuse  themselves  ?  Do 
they  drink  and  gamble  ?  Have  they  music  and  parties  ?  Yes, 
and  no.  To  understand  the  writer's  environment  and  this  remark, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  Europeans — Rayahs,  Christians  or 
Franks,  so  called — live  at  Pera.  Pera  is  the  residence  of  D,  D.'s 
(Dreadful  Dragomans)  diplomats  with  diplomas,  learned  in  the 
lex  gentium,  and  others  of  the  Greek,  Italian,  Armenian,  English 
and  Slavonic  races.  Pera  is  really  a  Western  city.  It  is  equipped 
with  tramways.  Each  nation,  under  the  "  Capitulations,"  is  sup- 
posed to  be  ruled  and  judged  here  by  the  laws  of  its  own  nation- 
ality. Pera  sits  upon  a  summit.  Its  streets  may  not  be  as  full 
of  folks  as  those  of  Stamboul,  the  bigger  city  across  the  Golden 
Horn,  but  on  a  sunny  afternoon  its  "  Grand  Rue  "  is  crowded  like 
Broadway  used  to  be  and  as  Fourteenth  Street,  New  York,  is  now. 
The  palaces  here  are  the  embassies.  The  suburb  is  Greek  and 
Italian, with  a  Greek  name  meaning  "The  Beyond."  Artillery 
barracks  and  burial-places  make  it  a  place  for  soldiers  and 
funerals. 

Upon  its  western  declivity — upon  which  I  look  every  morning, 
and  often  in  the  stilly  night — are  the  old  Turkish  cemeteries. 
Some  of  the  cypresses  are  growing  sere  by  the  filling  from  the 
refuse  of  the  town.  The  westering  orb  may  gild  the  remaining 
trees,  which  sadly  wave  over  the  broken  tombstones,  only  now  half- 
turbaned.  The  natives  and  Franks  may  wander  amid  these  relics 
with  the  goats  and  dogs,  and  now  and  then  a  clump  of  big- tailed 
black  and  white  sheep.  But  all  that  is  left  of  these  cemeteries  is 
the  Great  and  the  Little  Field  for  the  dead  !  Upon  warm  even- 
ings the  population — as  mercurial  as  that  of  Paris — go  within  the 
gates  of  the  Petits  Champs.  There  bands  play,  and  a  restaurant 
is  handy  for  your  orders,  as  you  sit  beneath  the  foliage.  There 
also  is  the  opera-house.  It  makes  its  music  above  the  graves  of 
the  Turk.  From  my  window  in  the  hotel  I  can  almost  touch  the 
graceful  cypress  as  it  sways  under  the  Marmora  breeze  from  the 
soft  southwest.  Whenever  the  sun  goes  down,  we  see  it  making 
a  golden  canopy  over  the  domes  and  minarets  of  Stamboul,  and 
sometimes  a  purple  lake  of  the  Golden  Horn! 

But  this  does  not  answer  the  question  :  How  do  these  people 
amuse  themselves  ?  First,  the  Turk  himself  does  not  drink.  But 
is  he  not  the  cause  of  drink  in  others  ?  He  will  sometimes  take 
champagne.     That  is  not  prohibited  in  the  Koran.     It  is  like  the 


FIRE,  AND  ITS  RESULTS.  ^^  i 

railroad — a  modem  and  useful  invention.  Its  inventor  has  long 
since  been  apotheosized  !  But  when  the  Turk  does  take  to  a 
violation  of  the  edict  of  Mahomet,  he  runs  to  great  excess.  He 
does  not  drink  once  or  twice  a  day,  nor  limit  himself  to  wine  or 
mastic,  but  all  liquors  are  the  same  to  him.    He  soaks  all  day. 

It  is  so  in  his  gambling.  There  have  not  hitherto  been  many 
opportunities  to  gamble  here,  but  some  Spaniards  have  recently 
come  hither  from  Monaco.  That  festive  principality  is  sup- 
ported by  the  "  little  game."  Either  because  the  business  has 
become  perilous  there,  by  reason  of  the  protests  of  the  purists  of 
Nice,  or  because  it  is  too  much  of  a  monopoly  in  the  royal  house 
of  Monaco — immigrants  from  that  maritime  Eden  are  here  estab- 
lished. They  have  a  suite  of  rooms  near  the  new  Italian  theatre. 
At  any  hour  of  the  night,  rouge-et-noir,  roulette  and  baccarat  are 
played.  The  Greeks  of  Pera  are  the  most  numerous  of  those  who 
patronize  the  games,  but  they  do  not  play  for  high  stakes.  They 
venture  even  so  low  as  a  mejidi^ — nearly  our  dollar.  But  if  a 
Turk  takes  to  the  "  green,"  he  gambles  like  a  New  York  Wall 
Street  lamb — for  all  that  he  is  worth,  and  more  too! 

There  are  other  places,  if  we  are  to  credit  rumor,  where  money 
may  be  wagered.  I  heard  of  a  young  Mussulman  who  lost  a 
thousand  dollars  the  other  night  at  a  gaming-table  attached  to  a 
cafe  chantarit.  The  roulette  rattles  in  the  presence  of  the  sirens 
who  present  the  refreshments  which  lead  the  novice  to  his  ruin. 
Gambling  does  not,  however,  run  very  far  before  its  hells  are  sup- 
pressed by  the  authorities. 

In  Pera  there  is  a  good  situation  for  a  Place  d*  Armes.  There 
is  no  great  open  place  in  Stamboul  proper  for  military  reviews. 
In  Pera — near  the  Taxim,  just  beyond  the  Legations,  or,  rather, 
between  the  northern  wall  of  the  park  of  Yildiz  and  the  model 
farm  of  the  Sultan,  there  is  an  excellent  site.  Here  will  be  the 
future  allotment  for  military  evolution.  Battalions  are  work- 
ing at  it  now,  in  order  to  make  it  feasible  and  convenient.  As 
Ihere  is  an  elegant  garden,  with  music  in  summer,  near  the 
Taxim,  there  is  quite  a  promenade  of  the  fashionable  people  in 
this  direction  during  the  warm  afternoons. 

^^Destoor!  Yanghen  Var!  "  **  Make  way  !  A  fire — there  is!  " 
When  these  Turkish  words,  thus  literally  translated,  are  sounded 
in  the  "streets  of  Stamboul  or  Pera,  the  unaccustomed  auditor 
looks  out  for  a  sensation.     He  will  not  look  in  vain.     It  is  the 


442  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

warning  of  a  fire ;  and  when  from  the  towers  of  Seraskier,  or 
from  the  top  of  the  tower  of  Galata,  the  vivid  crimson  light  throws 
its  beacon  over  the  cities  on  either  side  of  the  Golden  Horn, 
strange  sounds  are  emitted  from  the  firemen.  Talk  about  your 
Indian  war-whoop  of  the  "  Wild  West,"  or  that  of  the  Yahoos  of 
interior  Africa!  All  comparison  fails  before  the  long,  wild  shriek 
that  goes  up  from  the  half-naked  firemen,  who  with  bare  heads, 
hairy  bosoms  and  sweating  bodies  rush  through  the  streets  of 
these  cities,  bearing  upon  their  shoulders  the  pump  or  syringe 
which  is  to  play  its  baby  part  upon  the  fire,  and  play,  alas  !  in 
vain;  for  it  only  provokes  and  does  not  extinguish.  Yanghen  Var  ! 
Far  off  that  shriek  is  heard.  It  approaches  nearer  and  nearer. 
Then  come  other  pompiers,  bearing  long  poles  with  hooks  to  them, 
and  coils  of  rope,  and  then  the  axe-men;  and  every  man  of  them 
on  a  yell,  and  all  giving  the  cry  "  Yanghen  Var  !  Allah  !  Allah  !" 
with  a  lamentable  length  of  syllabic  agony  for  which  there  is  no 
expression  in  the  human  lexicon. 

There  was  a  conflagration  at  Pera  in  1870.  It  was  accom- 
plished with  neatness  and  despateii.  In  six  hours  two-thirds  of 
the  town  was  destroyed  ;  nine  thousand  houses  were  burned ;  two 
thousand  people  killed.  On  such  an  occasion,  all  the  leading 
pashas  and  other  men  of  note,  including  the  Sultan,  are  required 
to  be  present.  At  this  conflagration  the  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz 
appeared  ;  but  he  failed  utterly  with  all  the  aid  which  these  fire- 
men brought  to  stay  the  catastrophe.  But  was  it  a  catastrophe  ? 
No :  Pera  to-day,  by  reason  of  the  fire,  has  wide  and  decent  streets, 
and  in  some  places  elegant  streets,  not  to  speak  of  her  street- 
railways  and  other  facilities  of  comfortable  locomotion. 

In  the  aforetime,  when  a  fire  broke  out  in  Constantinople  it 
was  the  privilege  of  any  one  of  the  odalisques  of  the  harem  to 
put  on  a  fiery,  crimson  dress,  and  panoplied  thus  from  head  to 
heel,  push  herself  into  the  presence  of  the  Sultan,  regardless  of 
where  he  was  or  what  he  was  doing.  This  incident  has  in  it  an 
element  of  the  drama.  It  might  be  utilized  in  some  play  where 
the  Greek  fire  and  the  Turkish  firemen  play  a  conspicuous  part. 

Judging  by  the  terrible  disaster  at  Scutari — of  which  we  hear  as 
the  proof  of  this  chapter  is  being  corrected — there  has  been,  as 
yet,  no  adequate  provision  against  fires.  Firemen,  with  their 
puny  pumps,  rush  over  the  Bosporus  to  Scutari,  a  mile  of  water- 
way from  one  continent  to  the  other,  and  through  long  distances 


A  FIXE  IN  OUR  CHAMBERS.  443 

and  bad  streets.  They  climb  the  hills  into  the  Turkish  quarter 
on  the  south  and  the  Armenian  on  the  north.  The  church-bells 
rmg.  It  is  Sunday.  The  wind  blows  furiously  from  the  Euxme. 
The  air  is  dry  and  the  houses  are  tmder.  How  can  these  engines 
fight  the  fire  in  the  narrow  alleys  contracted  with  latticed  bal- 
conies ?  What  can  the  firemen  do  ?  Tear  down  the  ncketty,  dry 
houses  ?    No.     Pump  water  on  the  flames  ?     There  is  no  water. 

A  steam  fire-engine  from  Pera  is  sent  over;  but  still  no  water. 
Plenty  of  perilous  northern  wind  and  much  expenditure  of  wrath 
by  the  Christians  of  the  place,  while  the  Turk  bits  serenely 
watching  the  devouring  element!  The  next  morning  the  churches, 
schools  and  dwellings,  from  the  hills  to  the  water's  edge,  are  ashes 
and  a  cemetery  of  chimneys  !     God  wills  ! 

The  fire  companies  established  under  the  superintendency  of 
Count  Szechenyi  are  the  results  of  the  great  fire  of  1870,  to  which 
I  have  referred,  but  they  seem  thus  far  to  be  of  no  avail  :  certainly, 
without  water,  all  their  exercises  and  machinery  are  of  no  mo- 
ment. The  Count  is  a  military  man  of  fine  presence.  He  drills 
his  men  as  if  they  were  a  military  corps.  This  is  a  reform  ;  as 
much  so  as  the  displacement  of  the  old  volunteer  fire  companies  of 
our  American  cities  by  the  steam  fire-engines.  In  Constantinople 
yet,  there  are  rival  companies  of  firemen  of  the  old  sort.  They 
go  rushing  madly  through  the  streets,  half  naked,  with  their  terri- 
ble screams.  They  not  infrequently  have  a  regular  set-to  at  a 
cross  street  ;  after  depositing  their  little  painted  pumps  m  the 
streets,  they  fight,  regardless  of  the  fire  which  may  be  raging  in 
the  neighborhood. 

But  why  should  there  be  this  lack  of  water  in  a  city  which 
has  no  peer  in  the  East  or  West  for  its  enormous  and  well-made 
water- works  ? 

I  had  some  experience  with  a  fire  in  the  Hotel  Royal  in  one 
of  my  rooms,  owing  to  the  burning  of  the  curtains  by  a  servant; 
but  the  firemen  happily  did  not  come  until  I  myself  had  put  out 
the  fire,  which  was  consuming  the  bed-clothes,  curtains,  window 
sills  and  furniture.  When  they  did  come  in  with  the  police,  I 
had  more  trouble  to  put  them  out  than  the  fire.  They  hung 
around,  and  hung  around,  so  suspiciously  that  I  had  to  keep  my 
eye  on  all  the  unconsumed  property.  As  there  were  some  half- 
dozen  languages  spoken  by  the  servants,  porters  and  others — dur- 
ing the  blaze,  it  was  a  most  comical  scene.     All  the  women  of 


444  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

the  hotel — Armenian,  Greek,  Slav,  Italian  and  Turk — join  in 
the  insane  hullabaloo.  Their  persistence  in  keeping  up  their  noisy 
presence  long  after  the  fire  is  out,  compels  me  finally  to  read  a 
sort  of  riot  act,  and  to  explain  to  the  chief  of  the  police,  who  had 
to  be  sent  for,  that  the  inter-territoriality  belonging  to  a  Foreign 
Minister  is  indispensable  for  the  occasion  ;  and  thus  I  get  rid  of 
them,  after  much  unintelligible  jabber,  during  which  an  official 
endeavors  to  make  an  inventory  of  all  the  hotel  properties — with 
a  view  to  a  reclamation  ! 

It  has  been  said  that  the  whole  of  Constantinople  is  burned 
down  every  twenty  years  ;  but  I  doubt  if  this  be  true.  Many  of 
the  houses  look  venerable,  and  the  more  so  because  of  the  lack 
of  paint.  Being  wooden,  they  look  rusty  and  tired.  When  a  fire 
succeeds,  the  Turk  looks  calmly  at  the  ashes  of  his  home. 
Although  he  may  have  lost  his  all,  he  does  not  go  around  shed- 
ding tears  ;  **  Mashallah  !  What  God  wills  !  God  is  merciful,  and 
will  provide."  Besides,  Turks  are  kind  to  one  another.  This 
relieves  from  much  of  that  which  they  call  fate. 

The  population  of  Constantinople  is  more  or  less  divided  into 
quarters.  There  is  one  quarter  where  the  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion is  Bulgarian  ;  but  it  is  mixed  with  Turk,  Greek,  Circassian 
and  Gypsy  ;  in  another  quarter  Albanians  prevail,  still  mixing 
with  others.  Each  of  these  races  uses  its  own  language,  religion 
and  costume.  Therefore,  they  are  more  difficult  to  govern. 
Great  credit  is  due  to  the  government  for  managing  these 
distinctive  nationalities  and  evoking  harmony  out  of  their  dif- 
ferences. 

There  is  a  great  diversity  of  people  in  Pera,  even  among  the 
small  trades,  street  venders  and  laborers.  Few  of  these  are  Turks, 
though  Turkish  subjects.  Most  of  them  are  Armenians.  Those 
you  see  who  carry  water,  and  those  who  are  watchmen  at  the 
banks  and  counting-houses,  and  even  the  household  drudges,  and 
especially  the  haftials,  make  up  quite  a  feature  in  Pera.  When 
you  ask  the  names  of  these  Armenian  hamals,  how  proudly  they 
dilate  !  The  humblest  does  not  stagger  under  a  load  more  weighty 
than  his  own  high-sounding  name.     I  once  said  to  an  Armenian  : 

"  Your  name,  please  you  ? " 

"  Tighrannes,  Excellency." 

"And  yours?"    to  another.  , 

"Argashens" — that  is,  Artaxerxes. 


DIFFERENT  RACES  AND  EMPLOYMENTS. 


445 


I  ask  the  porter  of  the  sedan-chair  that  carries  my  wife  to  the 
ball  of  the  Dutch  Embassy,  the  names  of  his  aids. 

He  answers  :  "  This  man  in  front  is  Arisdaghes  ;  my  name, 
Excellency,  is  Belschazzar.  The  man  who  helped  you  yesterday 
is  my  cousin  ;   his  name  is  Mithridates." 

We  have  already  seen  one  of  this  class  in  a  picture,  bearing 
the  Tenth  American  Census  to  the  palace,  and  we  know  his  bur- 
den; we  have  remarked  on  the  enormous  weight  of  the  burdens 
that  they  bear;  but  no  such  jocund  folk  keep  a  festive  day  as 
the  hanial  guild.  Half  full  of  mastic,  and  with  his  in.  nense  mus- 
cular energy  devoted  to  a  dance  over  the  rough,  stony  paves,  and 
a  rude  kind  of  accompanying  music — the  Armenian  makes  the 
fete  of  this  craft  a  serio-comic  Diversion,  as  elephantine  as  it  is 
uproarious.  Perhaps  this  is  the  rebound  of  their  unburdened 
body  and  resilient  soul.  To  these  men  the  Bible  promises  are 
full  of  meaning.  The  promise  to  relieve  another  of  his  yoke, 
and  to  bestow  '*  a  yoke  that  is  easy  and  a  burden  that  is  light,"  is 
so  restful  that  it  could  come  to  none  other  with  such  emphasis 
as  to  the  heavy-laden  hamal.  The  metaphor  takes  hold  of  the 
Americo-African  imagination,  for  the  African  is  Oriental  in  many 
ways  besides  his  superstitious  ecstasy: 

"  Lucretia  Culpepper,"  said  a  colored  girl  in  Georgia,  giving 
her  religious  experience.  "  She  done  tole  me  howt'  lay  my 
heavy  loads  onto  Jesuses'  great  big  waggins.  I  han't  seed 
'um  anywhas,  but  I  feel  'um,  an'  de  moh  I  pray,  de  moh  I 
seem  foh  to  hear  um  rumblin'  way  wid  all  my  heaps  o'  tiredness 
on  um." 

Next  in  number  to  the  Armenians  in  Pera  are  the  Albanians. 
They  sell  trunks,  honey  and  groceries.  The  small  grocers  and 
workers  in  iron  come  from  Caesarea.  Janina  and  Salonica  fur- 
nish the  carpenters;  Turks  from  Trebizond,  the  wood-cutters; 
Greece  and  Bulgaria,  the  vegetable  venders;  the  milkmen  and 
the  gardeners  are  of  every  nationality;  but  the  Persian  commands 
the  donkey  brigade.  Owing  to  the  lack  of  vehicles,  the  donkey 
does  the  main  work.  Laden  with  building  materials  and  furniture, 
he  heaves  up  the  high  hill  with  huge  loads,  while  the  Montene- 
grin and  the  Croat,  without  much  rivalry,  do  the  digging  with 
spade  and  pick-axe.  The  Kurds  are  the  longshoremen  on  the 
quays. 

Now  the  reader  may  have  some  idea  of  the  Pentacostial  feast 


446  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

of  languages  when  he  reaches  Pera.  This  is  only  a  feeble  descrip- 
tion. What  with  the  Maltese  goats,  who  go  tingling  by  to  their 
pasturage,  each  *'  with  two  fair  crescents  of  translucent  horn  "  ; 
what  with  the  vocal  seller  of  bread  in  the  early  morning;  the 
mournful  cry  of  the  milkman,  which  wakes  you  all  too  early,  and, 
sad  to  say,  wakes  the  dogs  of  your  neighborhood;  the  snail-seller, 
who  howls  out  in  some  terrible  jargon  that  he  has  fat,  juicy  snails, 
all  alive  and  kicking;  and  that  other  genius  who  peals  the  Turkish 
words  for  vegetables  from  morning  until  night — these  sounds  are 
only  to  be  heard  in  all  their  multifarious  howling  in  Pera.  I 
except  one  vegetable  from  my  denunciation.  What  is  there  about 
asparagus  that  makes  one  kindly  disposed  toward  its  raiser  and 
seller?  Ah,  I  have  it:  his  cry,  as  it  is  interpreted  to  me  from 
the  Turkish  words,  is: 

"Little  lambs,  home-raised,  just  from  their  milk;  little 
lambs  ! " 

You  do  not  see  any  little  lambs  in  his  basket,  neither  alive 
nor  dead.  No;  the  lambs  are  the  asparagus  heads.  They  are 
plucked  out  of  the  very  mud  of  the  walls  that  once  defended  Con- 
stantinople through  its  historic  crises.  Why  does  he  call  them 
home-grown  ?  Because  they  have  not  come  from  a  distance,  and 
therefore  they  are  fresh  !     Another  man  cAes: 

*'  Here  are  the  true  suckmg-lambs. " 

He  is  an  artichoke  seller.  Was  there  ever  anything  so  Orien- 
tal ?  Why  does  he  call  his  vegetables  lambs  ?  Is  it  a  sign  of  the 
early  history  of  this  Ottoman  shepherd  race?  No:  lamb  is  the 
choicest  term  of  endearment  among  the  Orientals.  Our  Bible 
shows  this.  If  you  should  go  so  far  as  to  have  an  affectionate 
word  with  a  hanoum,  she  would  call  you  a  lamb  if  you  did  not 
anticipate  her. 

Along  comes  a  man  with  a  bundle  of  green  weeds  of  some 
kind.     What  does  he  say  ? 

"Birds  don't  light  on  it;  birds  don't  light  on  it." 

I  ask,  in  my  simplicity.  Why  does  he  thus  advertise  this  orni- 
thological fact  ?    Birds  don't  light — on  what  ? 

Oh,  he  too  is  selling  asparagus  !  The  name  suggests  such  a 
fairy,  delicate  leaf  of  green  sprays,  that  the  tiniest  bird  would 
break  it  down  if  it  should  alight  upon  its  little  stalk.  This  is  a 
part  of  the  vendible  poetry  of  every-day  life  in  Pera, 

Going  down  the  streets  of  Pera  every  day  en  route  to  the  Porte, 


BUTCHER  AND  HIS  SPOILERS. 


447 


I  find  a  narrow  street.  Its  odors  of  salted  fish  and  every  kind  of 
wet-goods  indicate  the  Maltese.  Our  big  carriage  tumbles  down 
these  bad  roads,  which  are  only  twelve  feet  wide,  putting  in  peril  all 
the  stock  in  trade,  yet  never  a  word,  save  in  courtesy,  from  these 
Maltese,  though  it  seemed  as  if  we  endangered  some  one  at  every 
step  of  the  horse  and  every  wabble  of  the  wheels.  The  greatest 
peril,  however,  is  to  our  Kavass,  whose  adipose  rotundity  by  the 


g^^^ja^L    \mmv  \\\m\u 


pimiii'i'iMiiiiii'Miii.iiiii^--  n<iut,imiiifliti!iiiiimnmfii)(    fM^ 


THE  MEAT-SELLER  AND  THE  HUNGRY   PACKS. 


side  of  the  driver  has  a  tendency  to  be  unseated.  Ah  !  if  the  Comp- 
troller of  the  Treasury,  and  the  Secretary  of  State,  could  have  seen 
Mehmet's  countenance,  in  his  agony  down  this  Maltese  quarter, 
they  would  have  hesitated  before  cutting  off  our  Arabian 
steeds. 

The  butchers  have  something  to  do  with  enlivening  the  city. 
They  nave  their  peculiar  noises.     They  go  through  the  streets 


448  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

dangling  their  meats  on  long  poles,  which  they  carry  upon  their 
shoulders.  They  awake  the  carnivorous  rapacity  of  the  dogs.  I 
arise  early,  sometimes,  and  look  out  of  my  window  on  a  vacant 
plaza.  I  see  the  butcher  bearing  his  pole  covered  with  lights  and 
livers.  I  am  familiar  with  the  canine  prefecturate,  or  king- 
dog,  of  my  neighborhood  ;  for  he  frequently  wraps  himself 
affectionately  around  my  legs.  That  dog  is  hungry  this  morn- 
ing ;  it  is  dawn,  and  he  has  light  enough  to  go  for  a  liver.  The 
tawny,  cunning  brute  arouses  his  tribe.  He  moves  quietly  and 
indifferently.  What  does  he  care  for  the  butcher  or  the  liver  I 
He  carelessly  stands  on  a  little  mound  of  dirt  under  our  hotel 
window,  so  as  to  make  a  closer  inspection  as  the  butcher  goes  by. 
He  sniffs  the  morsels.  A  drop  of  blood  falls  upon  his  cold  nose. 
Now  who,  if  he  were  a  dog,  could  resist  such  a  temptation  ?  He 
forgets  his  loyalty  to  royalty.  He  is  an  enemy— a  belligerent. 
His  dignity  descends  ;  but  he  ascends.  In  one  irrepressible  mo- 
ment he  strips  from  the  pole  a  sheep's  liver.  It  is  a  game  of 
polo  ;  but  two  play  at  it.  In  vain  the  butcher  goes  to  the  rescue 
of  his  liver.  Still,  he  believes  in  Kismet  ?  He  does  not  even 
swear.  I  nearly  did,  from  my  tower  of  observation.  The  butcher 
is  bankrupt.  The  dog  and  his  followers  are  his  assignees.  They 
have  the  whole  concern.  The  members  of  the  canine  community 
lick  their  chops,  after  a  contented  meal.  There  was  no  battle 
that  mDrnlng.  The  dogs  in  the  neighborhood  slept  well.  They 
even  allowed  several  strange  puppies  to  stray  within  their  autono- 
mous boundaries  and  to  retire  unscathed. 

Generally  speaking,  the  dogs  which  stay  around  the  butcher 
shops  restrain  their  appetites.  There  is  a  dainty  dish  which  you 
will  see  in  all  the  restaurants  of  Constantinople,  where  the  furnaces 
for  cooking  protrude  almost  upon  the  narrow  street,  and  the  fire 
flushes  and  warms  your  face  day  and  night  as  you  go  by.  This 
dainty  dish  is  called  "  kebab."  It  consists  of  morsels  of  mutton 
with  the  fat  on  them.  They  are  pierced  with  a  skewer  and  roasted 
hot.  They  are  due  on  demand,  and  never  protested.  It  is  a 
succulent  dish.  It  is  eaten  off  the  skewer  hot,  in  the  dining-saloon 
or  on  the  street.  It  constitutes  a  great  temptation  to  the  tawny 
quadruped  of  the  quarter.  He  seems  to  be  a  part  proprietor  of  the 
establishment,  by  the  interest  which  he  takes  in  its  cooking.  From 
the  time  the  kebab  is  placed  upon  the  spit,  until  consumed  by  the 
customer,  the  dog  never  takes  his  eye  off  of  it.  He  has  the  oppor- 


RITUAL  AND  BURIAL. 


449 


tunity,  after  waiting  all  day — the  dog,  I  mean,  not  the  customer — 
of  picking  up  many  a  stray  bit  of  kebab.  The  kebab  is  generally 
served  with  a  large,  flappy,  round  unleavened  cake,  and  pepper, 
salt  and  herbs.  It  looks  like  a  tempting  dish,  except  this,  that  it 
is  too  greasy.  "  Put  these  on  the  spit  and  roast  them  like 
kebabs."  This  was  said  by  a  famous  Aga  of  the  Janizaries 
when  he  ordered  the  impalement  and  roasting  of  some  succulent 
Bulgarians,  whom  he  dearly  loved — I  suppose. 

In  the  city,  if  seriously  inclined,  you  have  funerals  at  every 
church  and  a  cypress  grove  at  every  glance.  You  are  not  for- 
bidden to  join  in  the  cortege — at  least  m  that  of  a  Greek  funeral. 
Its  train  generally  consists  of  thirty  or  forty  men  in  their  ordinary 
attire.  These  are  headed  by  a  priest.  He  is  arrayed  in  his  long  dark 
robe,  with  a  colored  surplice  and  yellow  fringe  to  it.  He  wears  a 
high,  big  cap  or  hat,  hung  with  crape.  He  bears  in  one  hand  a 
small  brass  crucifix,  and  in  the  other  a  prayer-book.  Then  a  boy 
follows  in  a  surplice.  He  carries  a  cross  ten  feet  in  length,  and 
is  followed  by  other  youths,  each  with  a  lighted  taper.  Two 
other  lads  follow  ;  one  with  a  censer-dish,  from  which  is  swung 
"clouds  of  incense,  and  the  other  with  a  holy-water  basin.  As  thev 
move,  they  intone  a  drawling,  unmusical  chant.  The  face  of  the 
deceased  is  exposed  openly  in  the  coffin.  The  body  is  partly 
covered  with  flowers.  The  coffin  is  of  plain  wood.  Ten  minutes 
suffice  for  the  ceremony  at  the  grave.  The  coffin  is  then  lowered. 
A  little  earth  is  placed  in  the  priest's  hands.  He  fiings  it  into 
the  grave.  Another  prayer,  a  loud  Amen!  and  one  more  inhabi- 
tant joins  his  mother  Earth,  and  is  added  to  the  elements.  Each 
of  the  cortege  throws  a  little  of  the  soil  upon  the  coffin  and  the 
grave  is  filled  up. 

There  is  not  much  difference  in  the  ritual  and  burial  ceremo- 
nies connected  with  the  Turkish,  Greek  or  Armenian  people. 
When  a  Turkish  official  dies,  if  he  has  done  the  state  some  serv- 
ice, his  interment  is  celebrated  with  pomp.  The  army  and  the 
police  are  represented.  The  dervishes  and  the  sheiks  are  on 
hand  to  chant  the  prayers.  Grand  people,  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances, follow  him  to  his  resting-place.  Oftentimes  this  resting- 
place  has  been  carefully  prepared  in  advance.  It  is  localized, 
generally,  in  and  around  the  precincts  of  some  mosque,  where 
it  is  more  sacred  than  the  ordinary  cemeteries  of  the  environs. 

Pera  is  a  part  of  Galata,  or  Galata  a  part  of  Pera.     Taken 


450  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

together,  they  furnish  the  most  polyglotical  people  in  the  world. 
Each  foreign  community  lives  under  its  own  laws;  literally  its 
own  fig-tree,  for  the  fig  is  often  seen  shootmg  over  and  out  of 
the  little  yards  and  walls,  as  dusty  as  the  street.  There  are 
six  different  post-ofifices  in  Pera.  Each  nation  works  under  its 
own  system.  It  is,  of  course,  a  figure  of  speech,  although  nearly 
a  fact,  but  each  has  its  own  church,  house,  furniture  and  serv- 
ants. A  Dutchman  lives  on  his  own  canal  in  Pera.  A  Swede 
here  is  in  Stockholm  with  its  fre^h  running  water,  and  his  little  tug 
for  an  omnibus.  A  German  looks  up  at  every  window,  expect- 
ing to  have  a  bow  from  a  kaiser.  The  American — well,  we  will 
pass  him  by. 

When  the  Sabbath  comes  round,  you  hear  the  bell  calling  the 
Christian  to  worship.  The  Greek  seems  to  be  dominant;  and  if 
this  be  the  case,  where  is  the  sense  of  his  everlasting  jealousy  of 
the  Latin  Catholic  and  Presbyterian  Protestant,  Lutheran  Ger- 
man or  of  the  parrot  cry  of  Moslem  fanaticism.  Almost  within 
sight  of  the  mosque  there  is  as  much  freedom  for  Christian  wor- 
ship and  religious  liberty  as  is  to  be  found  in  any  part  oi  the 
world,  except  perhaps  America  or  France.  Who  is  it  says  that 
the  Sultan  is  intolerant  ?  Has  a  charitable  building  or  a  church 
been  erected  in  Pera  to  which  he  has  not  given  from  his  own 
purse  ?  How  many  hundred  prescripts  have  I  not  signed  as 
Minister,  entitling  the  American  missionaries  throughout  Turkey 
in  Europe  and  Asia,  to  the  entry  of  their  goods,  groceries,  medi- 
cines, furniture  and  altars — free  of  all  customs  duties,  if  imported 
for  the  use  of  the  Christian  missions  ?  When  has  the  time  been, 
within  the  last  fifty  years,  for  we  will  go  back  no  further,  when 
the  Turk  has'  not  kept  the  peace  between  Christian  priests,  even  at 
the  gate  of  the  Holv  Sepulchre,  quieting  their  indecorum  and 
making  Latin  and  Greek  respect  the  sacred  ground  ?  I  have  seen, 
in  the  very  manger  of  Bethh^hem,  the  Turkish  soldier  with  an 
American  Martini  rifle,  keeping  the  wrangling  religionists  asunder. 
This  was  Moslem  intervention  to  prevent  Christian  murder.  The 
commentary  upon  this  relation  of  the  sects  of  the  East  is  made 
by  the  small  boy  of  the  Sunday-school.  The  superintendent 
says: 

"Now,  children,  tell  me  what  heathens  are?" 
A  boy  responds,  with  more  truth  than  grammar: 
"  Heathens  is  folks  what  don't  fight  over  religion." 


THE  REFLECTIVE  MAHOMETAN. 


451 


What  a  curious  reflection  the  Mahometan  guard  must  have  at 
the  door  of  Christ's  sepulchre! 

"  The  race  of  Mussulman 
Not  oft  betrays  to  standers-by 
The  mind  within,  well  skilled  to  hide 
All  but  unconquerable  pride. ' ' 

So  that  we  may  not  record  exactly  his  reflections  upon  the 
belligerency  of  Christians. 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

SCENES   AND   DIVERSIONS    IN    STAMBOUL. 

The  city  of  Stamboul  is,  in  its  term,  an  Ottoman  abbreviation 
for  the  word  "  Constantinople."  The  reader  should  consult  the 
map  to  ascertain  how  Stamboul  is  related  to  Pera.  The  marked 
peculiarity  of  each  city  is  one  of  the  vivacities,  as  buoyant  as  the 
atmosphere  of  this  locality.  Diversion  is  easily  had  in  visiting  and 
revisiting  the  scenes  of  each — once,  and  now,  so  full  of  interest 
and  empire. 

To  what  point  of  interest  shall  I  direct  my  all  too  familiar 
steps  ?  There  are  plenty  of  living  pictures  in  Stamboul.  It  is  a 
hive  of  humming  activities.  Let  us  not  be  too  eager  to  find  its 
ruins.    Wherever  you  turn,  they  are  visible. 

The  stranger  who  wanders  around  in  the  old  Grecian  paths, 
in  or  out  of  the  city,  will  be  struck  with  the  immense  quantity  of 
columns  which  are  scattered  everywhere.  They  have  been  taken 
alike  by  the  Turk  and  Greek  architects  to  piece  out  modern 
erections.  How  often  have  I  seen  a  stony  tablet — a  dedication 
to  pagan  deities  or  a  memorial  to  a  Greek  athlete,  philosopher  or 
hero  imbedded  in  the  walls  of  a  garden,  house,  mosque  or  church  J 
It  came  in  so  luckily  for  the  builder. 

After  crossing  the  bridge  and  going  past  the  old  Seraglio,, 
the  Khan  Valide,  the  mosques  of  Suleimanyeh  and  Bajazet  II., 
across  to  the  New  Gate,  the  Sand  Gate,  the  Cleft  Gate  and  Stable 
Gate,  or,  turning  from  the  pleasant  breezes  of  the  Marmora,  skirt 
the  walls  which  shut  in  the  Seraglio  Point  and  the  Porte  ;  or 
linger  under  the  old  plane-trees  and  sycamores  by  the  way — 
wherever  you  walk,  you  cannot  indulge  in  the  associations  of  five 
hundred  years,  without  noticing  the  decayed  condition  of  wall, 
house  and  temple.  The  brickwork  still  shows  that  it  was  once 
exquisitely  ornamented,  and  the  stone  pillars,  in  their  fragments, 
are  tasteful  and  classic.  The  battlemented  towers  of  the  Se- 
raglio are  still  beautiful,  because  festooned   with   creepers   and 

4Sa 


MONUMENTAL  DUST.  453 

<Jraped  in  tufts  of  vegetation,  while  fig-trees,  foxglove  and  terebinth 
fill  the  gaps  of  the  stones.  Here  and  there  a  marble  fountain 
peeps  forth — smirched,  dusty  and  broken — with  a  Turkish  legend 
about  water  and  sanitation.  All  this  reminds  one  of  a  day  of 
industry  and  art,  the  glory  of  whose  apogee  has  long  since 
■departed. 

There  are  some  new  houses  building  in  Constantinople.  They 
are  built  on  the  ashes  of  former  buildings,  for  the  people  seem 
too  indifferent  to  remove  the  ashes  or  make  new  foundations.  Is 
this  a  reason  why  so  few  of  the  monuments  of  the  early  Byzantine, 
Roman  and  Greek  eras  ever  come  to  light  ?  Are  they  buried 
beneath  the  debris  ?  Doubtless;  for  it  is  only  when  cutting  for  a 
railway  or  some  structure  of  paramount  importance,  that  the  ven- 
•erable  masonry  and  statuary  are  seen. 

In  a  land  so  rich  in  history,  art  and  classics,  and  having  the 
sign  of  so  many  rare  and  wonderful  adventures  by  sea  and  land — 
where  history  records  "the  decline  and  fall  "  of  the  greatest  em- 
pire of  the  world — is  it  not  to  be  regretted  that  so  little  interest  is 
taken  in  the  antiquities  which  must  yet  remain  here,  either  above 
or  below  the  earth,  as  well  as  in  the  colonies  where  the  Greek  and 
Roman  power  was  once  paramount  ?  There  is,  however,  a  law 
-concerning  antiquities  now  in  existence.  It  has  recently  been 
promulgated.  The  museum  which  is  regulated  by  it  has  been  in 
-existence  for  some  time.  Compared  with  the  Boulak  Museum  at 
Cairo,  or  the  Greek  Museum  at  Athens,  it  does  not  attract  much 
attention  or  receive  much  encouragement.  The  author  of  the 
law,  Hamdi-Bey,  is  the  director  of  the  museum.  He  is  the  painter 
■of  fair  repute  and  talent  to  whom  I  have  referred.  The  purpose 
of  the  law  was  to  increase  the  collection  of  antiquities.  This  is 
-done  by  the  appropriation  of  all  antiquities  found  in  Turkey.  It 
was  intended  to  foster  archaeology,  to  protect  ancient  monuments, 
and  to  prevent  clandestine  excavations.  Not  only  has  little 
been  done  to  encourage  proper  researches  and  protect  monuments 
— in  other  words,  to  pursue  the  law — but  many  fraudulent  man- 
ufactures have  been  started,  and  many  fictitious  groups,  especially 
in  terra  cotta,  have  been  fabricated.  These  are  sold  to  the  uniniti- 
ated at  fabulous  prices.  They  are  as  secret  as  they  are  spurious. 
In  other  part§  of  the  ancient  Byzantine  empire,  there  is  more  ener- 
gy in  archaeology.  The  Czar  patronizes  such  efforts  whenever  the 
imperial  armies  open  up  new  fields.     We  know  what  has  been 


454 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


done  in  Cyprus  by  one  of  our  own  gallant  consuls,  General 
Di  Cesnola.  The  same  is  being  accomplished  at  Tashkend,  where 
terra  cotta  vases,  silver-gilt  ornaments,  and  little  statuettes  have 
extended  our  knowledge  of  the  boundaries  of  the  old  empire 
many  hundred  miles  to  the  northeast.  All  Central  Asia,  under 
Russian  research,  may  yield  precious  results  from  these  ancient 


BURNT  COLUMN  OF  CONSTANTINE. 


mines  of  historic  evidences.  Of  these  colonial  and  distant  realms,. 
Constantinople  was  the  nucleus;  and  here  should  be  achieved  the 
greatest  results. 

A  stranger  may  well  spend  a  day  at  the  Museum.  It  is  within 
the  confines  of  the  Porte.  As  to  the  Museum,  as  T  have  had 
occasion  to  know  while  making  a  rude  sketch,  there  is  consider- 


ARCHITEC  TURE  UNDER  NE  W  LIGHTS.  455 

able  supererogatory  vigilance.  The  policeman  did  not  like  even 
my  poor  penciled  imagery.     He  was  an  iconoclast. 

Nevertheless,  Constantinople  can  boast  of  the  most  interestmg 
of  ancient  monuments.  It  is  that  of  the  brazen  serpents  of 
Apollo — taken  from  the  temple  whence  came  the  Oracles.  It  is 
now  in  the  Hippodrome.  One  of  the  heads  of  this  triple  wonder 
was  struck  off  by  Mahomed  II.  at  the  taking  of  the  city.  The 
head  is  preserved  in  the  Museum. 

The  seven  hills  of  Stamboul  are  crowned  even  yet  with  edifices 
which  have  their  foundations  in  romantic  and  terrible  events. 
Start  from  the  first  hill  at  the  Seraglio  Point,  and  you  will  find  mon- 
uments enough  on  that  hill  alone  for  the  annals  of  two  empires. 
It  was  the  Byzantine  Acropolis  before  it  was  the  Seraglio.  It  had 
been  the  temple  of  Jove.  At  Meidan  is  the  ancient  Hippodrome. 
It  had  avenues  of  marble  and  bronze  imagery  fit  for  gods  and 
heroes.  Here  the  golden  chariots  flew  in  the  race,  amidst  the 
shouts  of  the  populace  and  the  splendors  of  unbridled  luxury  and 
power.  The  columns  and  eagles  of  the  early  day  were  flooded 
in  after  years  by  the  blood  of  the  Janizaries.  What  remains  ?  a 
silent  quarter,  covered  with  dust  and  ruins  ;  all  the  ancient  glo- 
ries gone.  Pass  on — !  What  is  it  that  strikes  a  stranger  on  the 
second  hill  ?  Not  the  marble  mosque  of  Osmanli  ;  for  mosques 
are  common.  It  is  the  burned  column  of  Constantine.  It  was 
once  tipped  by  a  bronze  Apollo  with  the  head  of  the  Emperor. 
What  porticoes,  arches  and  statues  surrounded  it  I  Now  it  is 
charred,  ribbed  with  iron  rings,  and  lifts  itself  up  in  a  crazy  way, 
as  if  to  warn  mankind  of  the  vicissitudes,  crookedness  and  perils 
of  prominence  and  power. 

It  is  no  time  now  to  pursue  the  other  hills  ;  they  belong  more 
to  the  present  than  the  past,  and  yet  they  speak  of  dead  dynasties 
and  sanguinary  conflicts. 

As  to  the  architecture  of  Constantinople,  no  one  can  speak  ex 
cathedra.  The  domestic  Turk  has  been  building  only  transitory 
habitations,  out  of  wood.  ^Vhen  he  builds  a  palace  of  marble  he 
seems  to  build  for  immortality  ;  but  no  one  can  tell  exactly  the 
order  of  architecture  to  which  it  belongs.  Still,  his  palace  has  the 
gorgeous  and  complicated  luxury  of  the  Orient;  and  his  mosque, 
with  its  graceful  minarets,  betrays  an  elaboration  not  far  removed 
from  poetic  luxury.  The  religion  of  the  Turk  pervades  all  the 
severe  Greek  and  Roman  architecture.     It  is  so  abstract  that  he 


456  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

prefers  the  meaningless  Arabesque  and  the  quotation  from  the 
Koran,  to  the  imagery  of  fruit,  flower  and  animal,  in  which 
Greek  art  reveled.  In  the  Turkish  work  there  are  no  griffins  to 
scare  you  ;  no  dolphins  to  make  your  head  swim  ;  no  birds,  but- 
terflies or  sphinxes  ;  few  flowers  and  no  nymphs.  There  are  no 
heraldic  or  mythical  monsters.  The  living  world  is  forbidden. 
Nothing  shall,  as  nothing  can,  in  their  art  and  faith,  aggrandize 
the  everlasting  and  sublime  unity  of  Allah  ! 

In  these  Diversions,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  scenes  so 
often  described  should  be  repictured.  There  is  the  temple  of 
Sophia,  dedicated  by  Justinian  to  the  Divine  Wisdom  :  no  descrip- 
tion can  do  justice  to  its  magnificent  dome  and  its  origmal  splen- 
dors. It  is  well  known  that  it  has  been  changed  since  the  Turks 
have  transformed  it  into  a  mosque.  The  four  Christian  seraphim 
under  the  dome,  executed  in  grand  mosaic,  remain  ;  but  the  names 
of  the  archangels  of  the  Moslem  faith  are  written  underneath 
them.  The  bronze  doors,  the  pillars  and  the  galleries  are  the 
same.  The  peculiarities  of  the  Byzantine  style  are  the  same, 
except  that  four  minarets  have  been  added  to  give  their  heavenly 
gesture  to  its  marble  poetry.  Ancient  art  furnished  the  eight 
shafts  of  green  marble  from  the  Temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus  ; 
and  eight  of  porphyry  came  from  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Baal- 
bec.  Egypt  gave  her  granite  from  the  shrines  of  Isis  and  Osiris. 
The  Acropolis  at  Athens  furnished  much  of  its  Pentelic  marble  to 
glorify  its  interior.  This  interior  was  once  covered  with  gilding. 
Time  has  faded  it.  Small  pieces  of  mosaic  lie  loosely  around  the 
building,  yet  millions  of  these  tiny  gems  of  art  still  adorn  the 
walls.  Around  the  centre  of  the  dome  is  inscribed,  in  golden 
Arabic  text,  this  sublime  verse  : 

**  God  is  the  light  of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth  !  His  wis- 
dom is  a  light  on  the  wall,  in  which  burns  a  lamp  covered  with 
glass.  The  glass  shines  like  a  star  ;  the  lamp  is  lit  with  the  oil 
of  a  blessed  tree.  No  Eastern,  no  Western  oil,  it  shines  for  who- 
ever wills." 

I  confess  to  a  little  of  the  prevalent  American  irreverence.  As 
I  read  this  inscription,  my  mind  had  a  Diversion.  It  concerned 
Western  petroleum,  about  which  as  Minister  I  had  considerable  to 
do.  Might  not  a  little  more  of  its  "blessed  oil"  add  to  the 
glory  of  the  occasions  when  this  Temple  is  being  used  upon  the 
fete  days.'*     From  this  idea,  my  mind  leaped,  as  does  that  of  my 


TURKISH  MOSQUES.  4  c^  7 

reader,  like  lightning  to  a  brighter  light  for  the  Divine  Wisdom. 
Why  should  not  this  and  the  other  mosques  of  Stamboul  become 
radiant  with  the  electric  light?  If  oil,  why  not  electricity?  The 
motto  in  gold  would  have  a  new  and  subtle  meaning,  and  the 
splendid  edifice  take  on  new  splendor  in  all  the  angles  and  curves 
of  its  structural  sublimity. 

The  mosques  of  Stamboul  do  not  impress  me  as  being  so 
beautiful  as  those  at  Cairo,  nor  are  the  minarets  so  tastefully 
carved  or  decorated.  The  mosque  of  Sophia  is  the  largest  in 
Stamboul  ;  it  can  accommodate  twenty-five  thousand  people.  It 
is  on  the  western  declivity  of  one  of  the  seven  hills.  Its  history 
and  original  form,  its  length,  width  and  dome,  have  been  mi- 
nutely described.  But  no  pen  or  pencil,  even  of  Divine  Light,  can 
give  an  adequate  conception  of  the  massive  arches,  gigantic  col- 
umns and  superb  dome,  including  the  eighteen  smaller  domes  of 
this  harmonious  and  magnificent  structure.  It  has  fourteen 
minarets,  each  of  which  has  been  erected  by  a  different  Sultan. 
It  is  said  to  be  a  rule  that  each  Sultan  shall  erect  a  minaret  for 
some  one  of  the  larger  mosques.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  patch- 
work outside  the  building.  This  is  not  so  graceful  as  the  minaret. 
There  are  other  mosques  with  more  prominent  minarets  than 
Sophia,  especially  that  of  Achmet,  which  has  six  minarets.  Exter- 
nally there  are  several  more  strikingly  grand.  It  is  surprising 
how  very  mfenor  m  its  aspect  is  the  outside.  St.  Paul's,  in  Lon- 
don, is  shut  in  by  surrounding  buildings.  This  will,  no  doubt, 
some  day  be  relieved,  but  it  is  not,  like  St.  Sophia,  desecrated 
with  shops  and  all  sorts  of  fungi  fastened  to  its  walls  and  ignobly 
dishonoring  its  shadow.  Would  that  it  were  like  Westminster 
Abbey,  or  St.  Peter's  in  Rome!  Then  its  columns,  from  the  tem- 
ples of  Ephesus  and  elsewhere,  would,  like  a  good  spirit,  have 
more  attraction  by  reason  of  its  exquisite  outside. 

The  pigeons  may  be  heard  to  murmur  their  affectionate  coo- 
ing all  through  the  Ottoman  mosques.  There  is  one  mosque, 
with  \X.sverde-antique,  jasper  and  porphyry  columns  supporting  a 
gallery,  especially  dedicated  for  pigeons.  They  are  fed  by  means 
drawn  from  the  legacies  of  benevolent  people.  Those  at  this 
mosque  are  said  to  be  wild  pigeons,  and  lineally  descended  from  a 
pair  of  birds  which  the  famous  Sultan,  Bajazet,  purchased  of  a  |X)or 
widow  who  once  asked  his  aid.  Every  stone  in  the  Turkish  cal- 
endar is  white  with  a  story  about  charity. 


458  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

There  is  one  portion  of  the  old  city  of  Stamboul  to  which  I 
could  never  get  accustomed.  It  is  underground.  The  city  is 
honey-combed.  If  you  will  look  at  a  plat  of  the  city  you  will  find 
cisterns  of  immense  extent  under  its  most  important  portions.  The 
royal  cistern  of  Constantine  the  Great,  which  receives  its  water 
supply  from  no  one  knows  whither  ;  the  cisterns  of  Theodosius^ 
Arcadius,  Phocus,  Valens  and  others,  which  rest  on  splendid  Cor- 
inthian pillars  of  graceful  architecture — furnish  evidence  of  the 
immense  sums  expended  in  providing  for  the  city  water  of  a  pure 
quality  from  the  hills  which  surround  it,  so  as  to  stand  the  inhabi- 
tants in  stead,  in  case  of  siege. 

There  is  an  old  cistern  that  comes  down  from  the  Greek  times- 
in  Stamboul,  almost  as  magical  in  interest  as  the  Brazen 
Column.  It  is  said  to  have  one  thousand  and  one  columns  sup- 
porting its  substantial  roof,  although  two  hundred  and  thirty-four 
is  the  real  number.  It  has  withstood  all  the  ruthlessness  of  human 
endeavor  to  destroy  it,  not  to  speak  of  earthquakes.  It  was- 
three  hundred  and  thirty-six  feet  in  length  and  one  hundred  and 
eighty-two  in  width.  It  was  intended  as  a  reservoir  of  water  in 
case  of  a  siege.  When  I  visited  it  in  1881,  it  was  utilized  as  a 
factory  for  silk  windmg,  on  account  of  its  damp  coolness;  for  even 
when  the  thermometer  is  up  in  the  nineties  on  the  outside,  its- 
interior  gives  its  happy  effect  to  the  silken  and  gold  thread.  The 
work  done  is  handiwork.  No  machinery  is  used.  Those  who- 
prepare  these  threads  for  the  embroidery  of  the  superb  fabrics  of 
the  East  tell  me  that  it  is  cheaper  without  than  with  machinery; 
the  machines  when  they  get  disordered  take  so  much  time  to- 
repair.  I  surmise  it  to  be  pure  laziness.  It  is  droning  in  the  old 
hive. 

In  festal  seasons  the  city  of  Stamboul  is  full  of  people.  The 
narrow  streets  are  jammed.  No  quarreling  is  heard  ;  no  rowdy- 
ism is  permitted.  The  coffee-houses  are  crowded  with  turbaned 
people.  There  is  not  so  much  fez.  They  drink  black  coffee  and 
smoke — and  smoke.  The  Arab  music  gives  its  drowsy  drawl  to  the 
general  quiescence.  The  ideal  of  an  Ottoman  vocal  artist  is  one 
who  yells  all  through  the  part  in  a  nasal  tone.  The  heart-breaking 
strain  of  an  Oriental  lyrist  is  very  disagreeable.  When  accom- 
panied by  the  continual  tum-tum  of  the  instrument,  within  a  com- 
pass of  three  or  four  notes,  no  melody,  only  agony,  is  the  con- 
sequence.    Still,  the  people  like  this  sort  of  music.     It  is  time,  if 


ANCIENT  GUILDS  AND  THEIR  PROCESSIONS.  459 

not  tune.  The  slow-moving  population  outside  the  cafes  stop  to 
listen  with  delighted  ear. 

In  former  times  there  were  guilds,  or  companies,  in  Constanti- 
nople. They  each  had  a  saint  for  tutelary  protection.  There  is 
something  humorous  in  the  fact  that  Adam  and  Eve,  even  Cain 
and  all  the  personages  who  figure  in  the  Old  Testament,  from 
which  Mahomet  derived  the  body  of  his  law  and  narrative,  acted 
in  this  patronizing  relation.  For  instance,  Adam  was  considered 
as  the  first  tutelar.  It  was  alleged  that  he  was  taught  by  the 
swallows;  and  doubtless  our  swallow-tailed  coats,  after  the  fig  leaf 
and  the  fall,  are  an  emanation  of  his  early  genius.  Sometimes 
Adam  was  considered  as  having  been  instructed  by  the  beaver  j 
for  as  the  head  of  his  race  he  had  much  to  do,  and  was  a  good  worker. 
Therefore,  he  was  the  chief  of  the  guild  of  builders  and  saw- 
yers. Hawa,  or  Eve,  patronized  bathwomen.  She  used  to  go  in 
swimming  amid  the  water- fowls  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  She  started 
ea^rly  as  a  patroness  of  the  bath.  Cain  was  the  head  of  the  grave- 
diggers.  He  was  instructed  early  by  wrens  ;  while  Abel,  being 
the  protector  of  sheep,  led  the  grand  army  of  shepherds.  And 
what  of  Noah  ?  Shipwright  !  There  are  fifty  different  trades 
which  made  Constantinople  the  nucleus  of  the  artisans  of  the 
East.  It  had  more  than  five  hundred  minor  trades.  The  elements 
of  industry  were  militant.  The  first  Knights  of  Labor  here  had 
their  processions.  Before  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
they  had  emblems,  ornaments  and  specimens  of  their  workmanship, 
which  glorified  their  craft,  and  would  make  the  great  meetings  in 
London,  Paris  and  New  York  pale  their  ineffectual  fires.  Is  the 
world  mdeed  retrogressing?  Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
Sultan  Murad  III.  was  about  to  leave  his  palace  and  his  harem, 
upon  that  beautiful  point  of  the  Seraglio.  His  chief  kiosk  bore 
the  name  of  the  "Pavilion  of  the  Processions."  He  invoked  a 
pageant  on  his  departure  for  the  wars.  It  has  not  had  its  equal 
since.  In  it  are  the  guilds  of  Constantinople.  In  a  continuous 
torrent  of  human  energj',  each  trade  bears  its  embroidered  em- 
blem and  specimens  of  work.  Every  man  is  dressed  in  his  best. 
Two  hundred  thousand  men  pass  before  this  fairy-like  kiosk, 
to  gratify  the  ladies  of  the  harem,  and  to  give  the  Sultan  a  fare- 
well before  he  leaves  for  the  siege  of  Bagdad. 

The  bazaars  do  not  show  the  guilds  or  handicraftsmen,  as  we 
would  imagine.     I  was  never  very  much  attracted  to  the  bazaars 


460 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA!'  IN  TURKEY. 


of  Stamboul.  Perhaps  it  was  because  of  the  everlasting  wrangle 
with  the  merchants  about  purchases,  or  because  of  the  narrowness 
of  the  streets  and  cross  streets  of  the  miniature  village.  There 
is  something  about  its  lighting  and  ventilation  which  detracts 
from  its  Orientalism.  In  comparing  it  with  the  bazaar  at  Damas- 
cus, the  latter  takes  the  palm  for  the  display  of  goods,  for  chaste 
designs  and  the  richness  of  its  fabrics.     Damascus  has  the  suf- 


BAZAAR     SCENE. 


frage  of  our  American  tourists.  The  merchant  of  the  bazaar  in 
Stamboul  is  an  Armenian,  a  Jew  or  a  Greek.  He  does  not  squat 
so  orientally  ^s  the  trader  of  Damascus.  He  has  not  so  much 
Oriental  dignity  and  reserve.  Many  of  the  traders  in  Stamboul 
walk  about  and  anticipate  your  coming.  They  dilate  upon  the 
goodness  and  cheapness  of  their  wares,  while  others  keep  the 
European  style  by  having  the  luxury  of  a  counter. 

It  is  an  old  maxim,    "Give  a  man  of  Cologne  one  half  of 


MRS.  BEN.HUR  AND  THE  TOWELS.  46 1 

what  he  asks  in  buying. ' '  You  can  do  better  than  that  in  the 
bazaars,  for  sometimes  these  merchants  have  been  known  to  drop 
from  thousands  to  hundreds  and  from  pounds  to  piastres.  I 
never  traded  much  in  these  bazaars,  but  generally  left  that  to 
another  and  brighter  member  of  the  family,  with  more  experience. 
In  fact,  I  have  been  afraid  to  do  it,  from  a  certain  warning  which 
the  accomplished  wife  of  my  predecessor,  Mrs.  General  Wallace, 
has  given  in  her  book  on  the  "  Storied  Sea."  I  have  no  compunc- 
tion in  inserting  here  her  experience: 

It  is  with  a  Moor  from  the  bazaars  of  Cairo.  He  has  Mecca 
scarfs  to  sell.  He  appears  at  the  Hotel  de  f  Orient.  He  is  clad 
•  in  the  rich  vestments  of  the  gorgeous  East.  He  reminds  our  lady 
of  Cambyses,  Sesostris,  Cyrus  and  other  barbaric  magnificos, 
including  Othello.  He  is  strikingly  handsome  and  thoroughly 
polite.  He  unrolls  his  bale  and  spreads  out  his  rugs.  Then  he 
lights  his  cigarette,  makes  his  pose  and  begins.  First,  he  unfolds 
a  scarf  with  careless  nonchalance.  It  is  from  the  great  city  of  the 
Prophet.  It  has  a  striped  gilt  border  and  gold  fringe  at  the  ends. 
He  names  a  sum  equal  to  forty-five  dollars.  He  dilates  on  the 
mode  by  which  he  obtained  it  from  the  harem  of  a  princess,  a 
niece  of  the  Khedive.  Then  he  displays  a  green  scarf.  This 
proves  unattractive.  Then  he  shows  his  piece  de  resistance;  he 
spreads  out  some  rare  towels  from  Damascus,  embroidered  in 
gold. 

"  Will  they  wash  ? "  the  lady  inquires. 

**  For  ever,"  he  responds;  "  the  silk  is  the  best  of  Syria,  and 
the  embroidery  is  laid  on  in  the  delightful  gardens  of  the  flowery 
banks  of  the  Pharpar.  It  will  be  shining  ten  thousand  years 
hence  as  now.  The  Bey  of  Tunis  has  ordered  fifteen  dozen  as  a 
present  to  Abdul  Hamid,  the  Beloved." 

Thus  dilating,  he  giv^es  fictitious  values  to  each  piece  of  mer- 
chandise. The  golden  embroidery  of  the  last  piece  displayed  is 
copied  from  the  mystic  hieroglyph  along  the  edges  of  the  Holy 
Flag.  But  I  will  let  the  lady,  in  her  own  graphic  style,  tell  the 
story.  Rejecting  the  last  tender,  she  says: 

"'It  is  too  dear.  I  may  look  at  the  towels  again.'  He  lifts 
one  and  throws  it  on  the  near  divan. 

'*  *  This  is  from  Bagdad,'  said  he — '  from  Bagdad,  the  land  of 
Aladdin,  of  Sinbad  and  Zobeide,  Scheherezade,  the  rose  and  the 
nightingale,  of  ivory  and  amber,  spicery  and  richest  merchandise.* 


462  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IX  TURKEY. 

"  The  tempter  saw  my  wavering.  Those  keen  eyes  lost  nothing, 
and  marked  every  shade  of  chance,  without  seeming  to  see  any- 
thing. 

■  "'Beware  of  the  neglected  opportunity,'  said  the  born-and- 
bred  fatalist,  beguilingly.  *  God,  the  merciful,  ordains  all  things, 
and  only  once  in  a  lifetime  come  the  great  chances,  according  as 
Kismet  has  prepared  them.   Allah  kcrim! ' 

"  By  this  time  the  servants  of  the  hotel,  and  several  idlers 
and  travelers  had  come  round  to  watch  the  trade.  They  formed 
a  ring,  of  which  the  Moor,  the  interpreter  and  your  correspondent 
were  the  centre.  Not  a  word  was  uttered  nor  a  sign  made.  They 
looked  on  intently,  apparently  anxious,  as  though  the  fate  of  thou- 
sands was  in  the  venture.  I  sent  an  appealing  glance  at  the  inter- 
preter, who  pretended  not  to  see.  I  could  not  spend  the  whole 
day  in  bargaining.  The  delay  was  tedious;  the  situation  embar- 
rassing to  a  woman  not  used  to  Eastern  ways. 

"  '  What  for  the  towel  ?' 

*'  *  The  towel  from  Bagdad  ?     Twelve  dollars.' 

"'Too  much.' 

"  *  Then  will  madam  make  an  offer?  Americanas  are  prin- 
cesses.    Their  money  comes  easy  and  goes  fast.     Offer  ! ' 

"  '  Six  dollars,'  I  said  hastily,  for  I  wanted  to  get  rid  of  the 
man,  and  he  had  stayed  so  long  I  felt  obliged  to  buy  something, 
and  'Jewing'  is  not  my  forte.  It  was  the  Moor's  turn  to  shake 
his  head  now,  which  he  did  in  melancholy  and  decorous  fashion, 
not  tending  to  unsettle  the  turban  folded  with  graceful  coils  above 
the  olive  forehead,  which  it  nearly  concealed.  The  neglected 
opportunity — was  I  missing  it  ?  A  towel  from  Bagdad  is  not  in 
market  every  day  and  it  would  be  a  nice  souvenir.  The  chance 
was  passing,  the  supreme  moment,  the  neglected  opportunity. 

"  *  Six  dollars,'  I  said,  recklessly. 

'"  I  lose  money,'  said  the  melancholy  man,  imploring  by 
mournful  accent  and  wistful  gesture. 

"*I  cannot  help  it,'  I  retorted,  warming  with  the  day.  'You 
need  not  sell  if  you  don't  want  to.' 

"  '  A  man  hard  pressed  must  take  what  he  can  get.  It  is  Kismet. 
The  towel  is  yours.  It  will  please  madama's  friends  across  the 
sea  beyond  the  Straits.  May  it  be  like  the  enchanted  carpet  of 
Boudressein,  which  brought  a  fresh  good  fortune  to  its  owner 
every  morning!' 


THE  DISAPPOINTED  MINISTRESS.  463 

"  *  Have  I  seen  all  your  stock  of  goods  ?' 

"  *  You  have,'  he  replied,  much  as  to  say  'the  world  is  at  your 
feet;  what  more  can  mortal  ask?'  The  interpreter  counted  the 
money,  the  crowd  broke  away  smiling,  and  jabbering  in  half  a 
dozen  languages,  and  one  Neapolitan  remarked  in  French:  *A 
runner  from  Sadullah  Bey's;  a  man  not  pleasant  to  meet,  if  one 
has  anything  to  lose.'  The  noble  Othello  alone  preserved  his 
calm  dignity,  and  in  silence  made  his  courteous,  profound  salaam. 
When  his  few  goods  were  gathered,  he  leaned  his  back  against 
the  wall,  after  the  manner  of  people  who  love  repose,  looking  little 
like  one  to  mount  horse  and  draw  sabre  for  Islam,  willing  every 
hour  to  die  for  his  faith.  Somehow,  the  noble  Othello's  bearing 
made  me  feel  like  a  robber,  and,  with  a  sense  of  guilt,  I  turned  to 
the  stairs  with  the  spoil.  My  heart  sank.  My  feminine  reader 
will  weep  with  me  when  I  tell  her  the  first  unfolding  of  the  Per- 
sian towel  revealed  several  stout  coffee  stains,  which  added  dirt  to 
the  yellow  tint,  which  dulled  its  beauty  and  freshness.  What  a 
forlorn  purchase  I  had  made!  Had  I  been  cheated  by  a  strolling 
pedler,  after  all  the  warning  fingers  lifted  at  me  on  both  sides  of 
the  sea  ?     I  ?    // 

"  '  Ah! '  said  my  friend,  who  had  listened  to  the  confabulation, 
*  I  see  your  rage  for  antiquities  again.  This  towel  has  arrived 
at  the  antique,  without  becoming  a  gem,  hasn't  it  ? ' 

"  She  held  it  up  to  the  light,  which  it  slightly  obstructed,  show- 
ing a  *  body  '  like  the  sleazy  stuff  our  grandmothers  used  to  make 
milk-strainers  out  of. 

'♦ '  Don't  you  think  it's  rather — rather  thin?'  she  continued, 
the  dimples  deepening  in  her  cheeks.  'And,  dear  me!  what  did 
you  pay  for  a  fly-speck  ? '  She  broke  into  the  gayest  laugh  in 
the  world. 

"  I  reddened  with  vexation,  but  was  dumb.  She  took  the  Bag- 
dad towel  in  her  two  little  hands,  gave  a  slight  jerk,  and  the  rotten 
old  thing  split  from  one  end  to  the  other. 

"  'Really,  now,  this  is  too  bad!  I  bought  this  as  a  souvenir 
for  you,  a  sample  of  Oriental  magnificence,  and  you  have  gone 
and  ruined  it.* 

"  '  Thank  you,  kindly,'  said  the  spoilt  beauty,  burying  her 
laughter  in  the  pillows;  'but  I  always  prefer  wy  dish-rags  without 
tinsel.'  " 


464  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Let  not  my  reader  confound  this  Moorish  Mahometan  with  the 
Turk.     I  have  a  much  better  report  to  make  of  the  latter: 

He  is  certainly  honest,  and  although  the  rule  is  to  bargain 
over  an  article  down  to  its  fair  value,  commencing  very  high, 
the  Turk  will  not  always  descend  to  this  device.  You  are  an 
American,  and  go  into  the  bazaar.  You  ask  the  price  of  an 
embroidered  handkerchief.     The  merchant  is  a  Turk. 

"  What  is  the  price  ?  "  you  ask. 

"Seventy-five  piastres,"  responds  the  merchant.  Knowing  that 
among  traders  it  is  best  to  offer  less  than  the  first  price,  you  say  : 

"  That  is  too  rnuch.     I  will  give  you  seventy." 

The  dealer  seems  to  nod  acquiescence.  The  money  is  counted 
out.  The  surprise,  however,  is  great,  when  the  Turk  pushes  you 
back  twenty  piastres,  observing  : 

"  This  is  more  than  the  just  price  ;  fifty  piastres  is  proper  ; 
these  twenty  are  yours,  sir." 

A  few  such  instances  should  redeem  the  trading  Orient,  and 
mantle  with  blushes  the  haggling  shop-keepers  of  Paris  and  the 
Moorish  pedlers  of  Cairo. 

The  bazaars  of  Constantinople  are  not  as  interesting  as  those 
of  Damascus,  and,  I  was  about  to  say,  those  of  Egypi.  The 
besetting  which  one  meets  with  from  the  "Touters  "  disenchants 
one  of  this  vicinity.  The  oil  of  roses,  the  bracelets,  the  carpets, 
the  rugs,  the  boxes,  the  towels — everything  is  there  ;  but,  after  all, 
human  nature  is  the  same,  and  does  not  like  to  be  "  Toutered  '* 
overmuch. 

European  fashion  is  killing  the  bazaar.  Where  now  is  the 
slipper  festooned  so  daintily,  ornamented  and  cased  in  glass  to 
allure  the  stranger,  giving  a  new  glory  to  the  bazaar  ?  The  slip- 
per is  almost  obsolete.  The  leathern  black-boot  takes  its  place. 
Why  linger  lazily  around  the  market  of  old  clothes  in  a  dirty 
alley  ?  Why  saunter  toward  the  stalls  of  the  seal-engravers,  once 
so  renowned  ?  Why  marvel  at  the  spoon -makers,  and  other 
handicraftsmen  ?  Rest  awhile,  to  glance  at  the  refectory  of  the 
pigeons  that  roost  in  the  cypresses  and  in  the  precincts  of  the 
mosque  of  the  Sultan  Bajazet.  Here  in  the  courtyard  of  this 
mosque  you  will  see  the  tempting  wares  of  the  East — from  Bokara, 
India  and  China.  They  are  picturesque  and  rare — worthy  of 
the  columns  which  support  the  roof  of  the  mosque  of  the  sacred 
pigeon.     Some  of  the  stalls  of  these  bazaars  are  highly  spiced 


BRAZEN  TOUTERS  AND  BLOODY  SACRIFICES.       465 

with  the  Orient.  Dates,  pistachio  nuts,  bananas,  fig  paste,  honey, 
almonds,  and  the  sweetmeats  of  the  East  fill  you  with  such  an 
odor  that  you  are  ready  to  die  in  aromatic  pain.  Then  there  is 
the  China  cup  and  bowl  bazaar,  with  a  thousand  exquisite  charms, 
amulets,  beads,  chaplets  and  precious  stones.  These  are  not 
more  precious  than  the  contents  of  the  gallery  of  the  Indian  mer- 
chant in  yonder  corner.  There  are  found  the  toys  of  China  and 
Japan,  and  the  matting,  so  common  in  the  houses  of  Constanti- 
nople. If  you  have  literary  inclinations,  you  will  find  quite  a 
display  of  Arabic,  Persian,  and  Turkish  literature,  and  you  may 
read  there  all  day  without  the  owner  asking  you  to  buy. 

Why  make  a  catalogue  of  this  immense  variety  of  goods  and 
traffic.  Let  us  to  the  open  air  !  The  attraction  of  the  bazaar  is 
too  Oriental.  It  is  a  castle  of  Indolence;  but  a  castle  full  of  rare 
exhibits  of  human  fabrication  from  every  craft  and  clime: 

'•  Richly  furnished  with  plate  and  gold, 
Basins  and  ewers; 

My  hangings  all  of  Tyrian  tapestry; 
In  ivory  coffers  I  have  stuffed  my  crowns — 
In  cypress  chests  my  arras  counterpanes, 
Costly  apparel,  tents  and  canopies, 
Fine  linen,  Turkey  cushions,  host  with  pearl. 
Valance  of  Venice,  gold  in  needle- work, 
Pewter  and  brass " 

Let  US  not  forget  the  brass.  You  cannot  ignore  it  if  you  would, 
for  the  "  Touters"  and  emissaries  of  trade  a.x&  prima  facie  guilty 
of  brazen  effrontery.  The  metallic  hardness  of  feature  and  voice 
show  its  triple  quantity  and  durable  quality. 

There  is  a  portion  of  Stamboul  which  is  a  Persian  colony.  It 
is  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Persian  Embassy.  The  peculiar 
customs  of  the  Persian  are  here  observable.  In  fact,  the  Persian 
Ambassador  is  a  civil  ruler  over  the  Shah's  subjects  in  Turkey. 
He  executes  if  he  does  not  make  law  for  the  Persians  of  the 
vicinage.  One  law  surely  ought  to  be  made  by  this  time,  and 
that  is  to  stop  the  rites  which  are  celebrated  at  Valid^  Khan,  in 
Stamboul.  This  is  an  exclusive  resort  for  the  Persians.  These 
rites  take  place  on  the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  Hassan  and 
Hussein,  who  were  the  Saints  of  the  murdered  All,  well  known 
in  Mahometan  history.  These  rites  take  place  at  the  Muherrem, 
or  beginning  of  the  Moslem  year.     Europeans  are  curious  to  see 


466  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

them,  because  of  their  horrible  cruelties.  They  have  a  sort  of 
weird  attraction.  They  smell  of  blood,  like  the  bull-ring. 
They  are  fascinating,  like  tragedy.  The  Khan  is  a  square  court. 
It  is  decorated  with  carpets,  cloths  and  candelabra.  All  \}ciit per- 
sonnel of  the  Embassy  are  present  on  this  occasion.  The  cere- 
mony begins  at  7  o'clock  in  the  morning,  by  the  chanting  of 
funereal  hymns  by  the  Persian  Ulemas.  These  priests  recite  the 
story  of  the  death  of  the  two  martyrs,  Hassan  and  Hussein. 
They  anathematize  their  murderer  Yezid.  Then  a  procession  of 
Nezirs  appears.  They  are  bareheaded.  They  wear  long,  flowing 
white  robes,  and  in  their  hands  they  have  large  knives.  They 
march  into  the  middle  of  the  court  and  form  a  circle.  Mean- 
while they  sing  mournful  ditties,  striking  their  breasts  with  the 
flat  of  their  hands,  or  making  cuts  into  their  heads  with  their 
knives.  The  blood  flows.  It  shows  upon  the  white  garment. 
Dangerous  wounds  are  inflicted  even  by  lads  in  the  novitiate  of 
their  penitential  ecstasy.  On  the  occasion  of  this  exhibition  a  , 
year  ago,  these  self-inflictions  were  practised  by  a  boy  of  eleven 
years  of  age.  He  had  to  be  restrained  by  the  bystanders.  Some- 
times, as  I  have  seen  at  the  bull-fights  in  Spain,  those  unaccus- 
tomed to  such  scenes  faint.  The  ceremony  is  too  horrible  to  be 
allowed,  even  in  a  semi-civilized  country.  The  word  iV^sr/>  means, 
one  consecrated  to  God;  so  that  the  religious  enthusiasm  has 
much  to  do  with  protecting  these  strange  devotees  in  their  curi- 
ous sanguinary  rites. 

Do  not  be  too  quick  to  condemn  such  atrocious  penitences. 
They  are  not  peculiar  to  the  East,  nor  to  Persia.  A  lady-cousin 
writes  to  my  wife  from  New  Mexico,  and  thus  pictures  a  similar 
scene: 

"  Many  of  the  natives  belong  to  the  Order  of  Penitents,  a 
class  who  inflict  the  most  cruel  punishments  upon  themselves  in 
atonement  for  sin — such  as  putting  pebbles  and  pieces  of  glass  in 
their  shoes,  and  then  walking  on  them  for  half  a  day  or  more; 
sticking  the  body  full  of  cactus  burrs;  having  three  gashes  cut 
down  each  side  of  the  spine,  and  then  being  lashed  over  the  raw 
and  bleeding  cuts  with  a  scourge  made  of  soap-wood,  which  you 
know  is  thickly  covered  with  little  points  sharp  as  needles.  The 
clothing  of  the  penitents  consists  only  of  a  pair  of  white  muslin 
trousers  and  a  cloth  tied  tightly  over  the  face.  I  have  seen  the 
ignorant  creatures  lashed  with  the  scourge  until  their  little  cloth- 


THE  PEERLESS  TREASl'RY.  467 

ing  looked  as  if  it  had  been  dipped  in  blood,  and  the  scourge 
would  be  so  thoroughly  saturated,  that  at  every  stroke  the  blood 
would  fly  in  all  directions.  Until  this  last  year,  no  Christian 
work  had  ever  been  undertaken  at  San  Rafael,  and  upon  our 
arrival  among  them,  the  people  all  held  back,  seeming  to  fear  we 
were  there  to  do  them  harm.  Children  would  run  screaming  to 
their  homes  if  they  chanced  to  see  us  on  the  street,  evidently 
having  as  much  fear  of  us  as  we  have  of  Geronimo  and  his  band 
of  scalpers." 

•  No  one  should  omit,  if  he  can  possibly  get  a  firman  from  the 
palace  through  the  aid  of  his  Minister,  an  inside  view  of  the 
Imperial  Treasury  in  Stamboul.  It  is  not  all  that  we  would 
€xpect  in  variety  and  opulence.  I  am  sorry  to  sr-v,  after  all  my 
inquiry,  that  it  is  not  rich  in  manuscripts,  as  we  had  fondly  hoped. 
It  is  extraordinary  for  its  precious  stones,  jeweled  swords,  da;^- 
gers,  aigrettes  and  figured  brocades.  A  writer  in  the  London 
Times,  Mr.  Robmson,  an  expert  in  matters  of  this  kind,  made  a 
revelation  of  its  contents.  He  removes  the  impression,  of  which 
I  had  long  since  been  disenchanted,  that  there  were  any  Byzan- 
tine spoils  in  the  Treasury.  It  is  well  known  that  in  a.  d.  1574, 
many  old  Ottoman  heirlooms  were  burned,  but  there  must  have 
been  given  to  the  Sultans,  by  tributary  and  vanquished  kings  and 
princes,  some  most  remarkable  objects  of  art  and  beauty,  if  not  of 
Greek,  Saracenic  or  Ar^^bic  art;  for  in  wood,  jewels  and  metals 
no  people  could  then  be  compared  with  the  artisans  of  Damas- 
cus and  other  parts  of  the  ancient  empire.  The  contents  of  the 
glass  cases  of  the  Treasury  have  never  been  exaggerated.  Do 
you  want  emeralds  ?  You  will  find  them  there  as  big  as  peaches. 
Diamonds  ?  There  are  large  table  ornaments  of  that  jewel  innu- 
merable. Cimeters?  Fortunes  in  emeralds  as  large  as  a  hen's 
egg  are  in  their  hilts,  and  their  sheaths  are  encrusted  with  tur- 
quoises, opals,  rubies  and  what  not,  of  jewelry.  Here,  too,  are  the 
Sultanic  figures  in  their  ancient  robes  of  state.  The  robes  are 
genuine  ;  but  the  waxen  faces  of  the  Sultans  can  hardly  be  fac- 
similes. The  robes  are  costly  in  silk,  aigrettes  and  daggers. 
The  colors  of  the  fabrics  are  faded,  but  there  is  no  doubt  about 
the  fadeless  color  of  the  precious  st<)nes. 

There  is  a  good  collection  of  coins  in  this  Treasury.  It  is 
said  by  Gibbon,  that  you  may  learn  the  histor)-  of  a  nation  from 
its  coins;  but  unless  a  better  arrangement  be  made,  no  one  will 


468  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

ever  read  history  here  in  that  way,  for  the  coins  are  so  placed  in 
their  cases  that  it  is  impossible  to  decipher  them. 

It  is  a  pity  that  some  one  learned  in  numismatic  lore  should 
not  have  the  opportunity  of  making  a  catalogue  and  a  commen- 
tary upon  these  thousands  of  coins.  Some  of  the  coins  are  Ro- 
man, some  Byzantine,  and  a  large  number  are  Arabian  coins  of 
the  first  century  of  the  Hegira. 

There  are  twenty  or  thirty  custodians  of  this  Treasury.  They 
are  of  various  rank.  They  are  lynx-eyed.  The  building  in 
which  the  Treasury  is  situated  is  a  part  of  the  old  Seraglio.  It 
was  founded  by  Mahomed  the  Second,  on  the  site  of  the  palace 
of  the  Paljeologi.  The  Treasury  was  once  supposed  to  be  used 
as  a  library.  It  was  thought  to  hold  many  of  the  treasures  of 
ancient  literature,  among  others  the  missmg  books  of  Livy. 

I  have  visited  the  Treasury  on  several  occasions  with  Ameri- 
cans, having  procured  the  firman.  I  think  we  were  favored  greatly 
in  this  regard,  although  our  company  was  generally  too  great 
for  the  rules  and  the  guards. 

Going  from  the  Treasury,  the  company  is  conducted  to  the 
Bagdad  kiosk.  It  was  built  by  one  of  the  Sultans — Murad  the 
Fourth — from  a  model  in  Bagdad.  The  tiles  are  Persian,  though 
some  are  of  the  blue  sort  common  in  Cairo  ;  but  no  country  was 
ever  more  famous  for  its  exquisite  tiles  than  Turkey. 

This  kiosk  is  lined  with  tiles.  Its  doors  are  inlaid  and  its 
ceilings  are  painted.  The  attendants  expect  the  usual  backsheeshy 
and  they  render  a  fair  equivalent,  for  they  give  us  coffee  in  dainty 
cups  set  in  silver  *fingans  of  filigree  ;  and  to  those  who  do  not 
affect  the  black,  uncreamed  coffee  of  Arabia,  they  give  cool  water 
or  sherbet,  and  with  both  conserve  of  roses.  Seated  upon  the 
veranda,  at  this  most  famous  spot  of  all  the  earth — Seraglio  Point 
— you  have  the  best  view  of  the  Bosporus,  with  all  its  loveliness 
and  activities,  and  of  the  bridge,  with  all  its  picturesque  and  many 
colored  forms,  going  and  coming.  Where  in  1851  I  wandered 
amidst  the  most  beautiful  of  gardens,  I  regret  to  say  that  the 
lawns  and  shrubs  have  departed  with  the  palace.  Its  veiled  beau- 
ties are  now  on  the  other  side  of  the  Bosporus.  From  this 
Seraglio  Point  you  can  see  far  up  the  Straits.  Your  eye  may  fol- 
low their  windings,  past  Beylerbey  on  one  side,  and  Orta  Keui 
on  the  other.  Surely,  never  was  a  mistake  so  flagrant  as  when 
the  Sultans,  after  the  conflagration,  gave  up  this  point  for  a  rail- 


THE  OLD  SERAGLIO  POLVT.  46^ 

Toad,  and  left  its  lovely  seclusion  and  fairy  parterres,  its  glorious 
view  and  its  grand  point  of  vantage,  even  to  live  at  Yildiz,  in  the 
Mansion  of  the  Star. 

Alas  for  the  old  Seraglio  !  Its  splendor  was  consumed.  Even 
before  the  fire,  it  was  made  a  sort  of  old  ladies'  home.  There 
the  widows  of  dead  Sultans,  and  their  elderly  friends,  received 
hospitality.  There  are  some  out-buildings  that  speak  of  the  old 
palace — a  mosque,  a  bath-house  and  a  kiosk.  These  were  saved 
from  the  conflagration.  When  in  its  prime,  this  lofty  point  or 
peninsula  jutted  out  into  the  sea,  and  was  washed  by  the  divid- 
ing currents  of  the  Bosporus,  and  by  the  blue,  musical  waves 
of  the  Marmora.  What  with  minaret,  cypress  and  turret  upon 
this  eminent  place,  it  is  even  yet  worthy  of  palatial  honor.  A 
Vanderbilt  or  an  Astor — seeking  a  terrestrial  paradise — if  he 
would  unload  his  bonds  and  stocks,  he  could  find  it  here,  seven 
times  exalted  by  the  natural  beauties  of  sky,  water  and  land,  and 
by  the  associations  of  three  thousand  years  of  historic  vicissitudes. 

After  visiting  the  Treasury  and  the  Kiosk  of  Bagdad,  a  plain 
Corinthian  shaft  attracts  your  attention.  It  is  the  column  of 
Theodosius.  It  is  fifty  feet  high,  and,  like  the  Delphian  tripod 
in  the  Hippodrome,  it  is  of  great  classical  interest.  Scattered 
about  are  many  ancient  altars  and  fragments  of  pillars  in  these 
courts  of  the  old  Seraglio.  Many  of  them  have  been  collected 
and  placed  in  the  Museum.  Not  the  least  interesting  portion  of 
these  grounds  is  the  ancient  Throne-room.  With  a  little  backsheesh^ 
you  visit  it  as  part  of  the  spectacle.  The  throne  is  immense.  It 
is  in  the  form  of  a  four-post  bedstead.  The  posts  are  thickly 
encrusted  with  rubies,  sapphires,  emeralds,  and  turquoises.  It 
was  not  altogether  a  Diversion  to  be  a  diplomat  in  the  early  days 
here,  for  the  Greek  emperors  were  accustomed  to  put  out  the 
optics  of  ambassadors,  as  witness  the  blinding  of  Dandolo  ;  and 
€ven  since,  and  within  the  century,  the  Foreign  Ambassador  was 
ordered  to  the  Seven  Towers,  or  to  an  execution  from  this  neigh- 
borhood. It  was  within  this  Throne-room  that  the  Foreign  Am- 
bassadors were  presented.  They  had  to  be  bathed  first,  and  then 
fed.  They  were  clothed  in  a  rich  mantle  before  presentation. 
They  were  lifted  almost  bodily  into  the  august  presence  of  the 
Vicegerent  of  Allah  on  earth.  In  order  that  they  might  not  show 
any  sign  of  breaking  down  under  the  awful  burden  of  the  Imperial 
presence,  they  were  supported  on  either  side  by  officials.     I  do 


470  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

not  see  the  reason  of  this  rule  ;  inasmuch  as  when  introduced 
into  the  presence  before  the  curtain  of  the  high-posted  and  jeweled 
bedstead,  the  Ambassador  did  not  look  upon  the  august  Majesty; 
only  on  his  jeweled  finger,  which  was  thrust  out  between  the  cur- 
tains to  be  kissed  by  the  Ambassador. 

The  Hippodrome  remains  to-day  among  the  most  interesting^ 
relics  in  Stamboul.  It  is  monumental.  Upon  the  open  space  in 
front  of  the  mosque  of  Achmet,  there  is  a  museum  of  Ottoman 
costumes.  It  is  called  Gebecei-Atika.  Let  us  visit  this  museum  ! 
It  has  pleasant  surroundings.  It  has  quietude  and  shade.  These 
make  it  the  asylum  which  it  was  intended  to  be,  for  the  ancient 
Ottoman,  whose  effigies  in  most  singular  figure  and  dress  are  here 
exhibited.  It  strikes  one  as  strange  that  the  Mahometans,  who 
dislike  all  imagery,  who  are  iconoclasts  if  they  are  anything, 
should  themselves  have  instituted  this  museum.  At  the  very 
entrance  of  the  staircase  you  encounter  the  figure  of  a  Janizary. 
He  is  dead,  of  course,  but  quite  vital  to  those  who  read  his  history. 
Enter !  Lo  !  Some  four  hundred  representations  of  the  human 
form  !  They  are  most  remarkable  personages.  A  few  of  their 
images  are  pictured  in  our  Chapter  IX.  on  the  Janizaries.  You 
think  they  are  caricatures  ?  They  are  everything  else.  The  old 
costumes  are  here  with  all  their  voluminousness  and  ferocity. 
The  belt  is  at  once  an  arsenal  and  a  pocket,  into  which  every- 
thing is  gathered,  from  a  tobacco  pouch  to  a  yataghan. 

The  Eden  Musee  and  Madame  Tussaud  may  strive,  but  they 
can  never  rival  this  exhibition  !  What  motionless  and  strange 
visions  they  have  collected,  fantastic  and  weird  !  but  there  is 
nothing  so  strange  and  fantastic  to  be  found  in  human  similitude, 
as  these  turbaned  Turks  of  a  dead  age.  A  century  has  not  yet 
gone  by  ;  and  yet  we  find  men  who  can  gaze  upon  this  scene, 
pictured  in  this  museum,  and  say  that  Turkey  still  remains  as  she 
was  fourscore  years  ago.  This  museum  teaches  that  the  national 
habits  have  been  thoroughly  broken  up.  The  costumes  have 
become  curious  antiquities.  These  strange,  bearded  visages,  with 
their  glass  eyes,  that  mock  the  very  light,  have  in  them  something 
of  the  wonderful,  such  as  the  "  Thousand  and  One  Nights  "  pro- 
duce upon  the  imagination.  They  are  not  illusions.  They  are 
rouged  and  fierce  visages,  not  unlike  the  painted  bodies  of  the 
dead  as  they  appear  in  their  coffins  on  their  way  to  the  grave  in 
this  Oriental  country.     Most  of  these  strange  effigies  are  those  of 


CONGRESS  OF  PHANTOMS. 


471 


artisans  ;  but  the  most  remarkable  are  the  functionaries  of  the 
Seraglio,  and  among  them  the  most  wonderful  of  the  wondrous  is 
the  master  of  the  eunuchs — the  Kisslar  Agassi  !  He  is  splendidly 
clothed.  His  clothes  are  embroidered  with  flowers.  What  enor- 
mous trousers  !  half  hidden  beneath  a  tunic  of  silk.  A  Cashmere 
shawl  of  richest  rarity  is  the  sash.  The  turban  is  of  red  muslin  ; 
and  the  boots  are  of  yellow  morocco.  Look  again  !  It  is  the 
Grand  Vizier,  the  Sheik-Ul-Islam,  and  the  Captain  Pasha.  These 
are  similarly  dressed.  Turn  your  eye,  and  ycu  see  tissues  of  the 
richest  fabric,  massive  gold  clasps,  weapons  enough  to  fill  an 
arsenal,  caps  in  crescent  form,  and  fantastic  head-dresses,  wor- 
thy of  the  kings  of  Egypt.  The  chief  scullion  carries  upon  his 
shoulder  a  gigantic  ladle.  It  is  the  emblem  of  his  rank  and 
authority.  This  ladle  terminates  in  a  blade.  It  is  thought  to 
represent  the  butchery  of  the  brute  preceding  the  cooking. 
Others  bear  kitchen  utensils  used  in  the  old  harem.  Here  on  one 
side  you  find  the  candle-lighter  in  his  dress  ;  there  the  bearer  of 
the  cat-o'-nine  tails  in  a  peculiar  toilette  ;  and  yonder  the  servant 
with  the  wooden  bowl.  There  are  some  specimens  of  the  soldiers 
of  other  corps  than  the  Janizaries.  Their  dresses  are  not  unlike 
those  which  I  have  seen  in  Algiers.  Then  the  Albanian,  the 
Armenian  and  the  Greek  come  in  on  their  lines,  and  assist  in 
this  wonderful  congress  of  the  phantoms  of  a  past  era. 

Who  originated  this  remarkable  museum  ?  It  must  have  been 
some  Turk,  with  a  cunning  malice  against  the  Janizary  corps  zxidi 
a  knack  for  caricature  ;  or,  perhaps,  some  descendant  of  the  old 
Janizary  or  harem  officers,  proud  and  conservative  of  the  ancient 
nationality.  Who  could  have  done  it?  I  summon  this  curious 
congregation  of  the  past  actors  upon  the  Bosporus,  as  well  for  the 
delectation  as  for  the  instruction  of  my  readers. 

Amid  all  the  mountains  and  waters,  and  the  strange  forms  of 
architecture  and  odd  costumes  of  men,  one  cannot  help  but 
ponder  and  wonder  what  the  future  of  this  magnificent  land  may 
be  a  half  century  hence.  Who  will  control  it  ?  The  style  and  state- 
liness  of  the  old  time  may  not  be  present  in  Constantinople  now. 
The  throng  which  once  received  the  Sultan  may  not  be  here. 
What  in  outward  show  the  Grand  Vizier  was  once,  the  Sultan 
hardly  is  to-day.  The  horse  covered  with  steel  and  gold,  the  files 
of  superbly  attired  soldiers,  the  grooms  of  the  harems  leading  their 
Arab  and  Persian  horses,  and  the  grand  cortege,  with  its  blatant 


472  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

music  of  drum  and  trumpet — these  have  gone  to  the  abysm.  The 
King  of  kings,  with  all  the  titles  that  belonged  to  him  as  Caliph, 
Conqueror  and  Ruler,  may  remain  to  close  the  nineteenth  century  ; 
for  who  else  will  be  allowed  to  take  his  place  ?  He  moves  before 
us  still,  in  spite  of  augury.  It  is  a  solemn  and  a  curious  proces- 
sion. To  understand  its  meaning  and  the  luxury  and  costlinesses 
of  its  decorations,  you  must  visit  Gebecei-Atika. 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

SCENES   AND   DIVERSIONS   AROUND   THE   CITY    OF    STAMBOUL. 

There  are  some  days  during  the  summer  and  in  the  beautiful 
fall  weather  when  the  time  can  be  fully  occupied  in  making  visits 
to  the  rare  historic  and  monumental  scenes  around  the  city.  No 
city  has  extant  such  magnificent  remains.  Supreme  above  all  I 
select  the  triple  walls.  From  the  Seven  Towers  they  follow  the 
sides  of  a  triangle,  two  sides  of  which  are  on  the  shores,  and  the 
smaller  side  by  land.  There  is  constant  occupation  for  the 
observer  to  read  up,  with  actual  inspection,  the  history  of  the  many 
sieges  which  Constantinople  has  experienced.  Or,  if  he  should  feel 
lugubriously  inclined  and  should  tire  of  the  sights  of  the  city, 
if  the  sameness  of  the  mosque  or  the  variety  of  the  people  and 
streets  of  Stamboul  grow  monotonous,  there  is  the  magnificent 
tomb  of  Mahmoud,  who  was  the  grandfather  of  the  present  Sultan. 
That  is  to  be  seen  and  admired.  It  is  a  masterpiece  of  Italian 
architecture.  It  is  built  oi  parti-colored  and  highly  polished 
marble.  Within  is  a  divan,  rich  shawls,  gilt  rails,  rare  volumes 
of  the  Koran,  each  and  all  in  harmony  with  the  best  taste  which 
Turkey  could  bestow  or  buy  for  one  of  her  great  Sultans.  Or, 
if  time  hang  heavy,  there  is  a  drive  through  the  splendid  woods 
known  as  the  Belgrade  Forest,  which  I  visited  in.  the  chestnut 
season,  when  the  poachers  were  busy,  the  woods  full  of  Gypsies 
and  the  officers  of  the  government  were  vainly  striving  to  collect 
the  revenue  which  came  from  the  harvest.  Upon  the  fine  roads 
which  penetrate  the  woods,  you  may  approach  the  springs  and 
aqueducts  of  the  city's  water  supply.  Superior  to  the  supply  of 
Damascus  is  the  arrangement  of  Constantinople.  In  every 
mosque  and  at  every  corner  are  fine  fountains,  not  only  the  gift 
of  individuals,  but  erected  by  the  providence  of  the  ruler.  In 
fact,  water  is  an  institution  of  the  Turk. 

•  The  fountains  of  the   city  are  attractive  by  reason  of  their 
designs.     Many  of  them  are  quite  ornamental,  and  adorned  with 


474  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  K 

texts  from  the  Koran.  They  always  look  shabby,  sloppy  and 
dirty,  notwithstanding  the  handy  cleansing  element  of  water.  Some 
of  these  texts  have  been  translated  to  me.  They  are  devotional. 
The  water  is  not  carried  into  the  house  by  pipes.  The  people 
supply  themselves  from  the  fountains.  Water-carriers,  hamals, 
loaded  like  donkies,  with  their  barrels  decorated  with  green  leaves, 
move  around  the  streets  distributing  it  through  the  city.  Bath- 
houses are  common.  There  are  not  less  than  one  hundred  and 
thirty  for  public  use  in  the  city.  The  water  comes  from  reser- 
voirs in  the  wooded  neighborhood  of  Belgrade,  a  village  fifteen 
miles  north  of  the  capital.  To  reach  it  you  go  through  the  for- 
est made  famous  by  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montague.  Its  shaded 
roads  and  paths  are  by  no  means  free  from  brigands.  For  one 
thing  the  Turk  deserves  credit  :  he  endeavors  to  utilize  every 
trickle  of  water.  He  justifies  this  heed  and  care  by  one  of  his 
favorite  maxims: 

"  Do  good  and  throw  it  into  the  sea!  If  the  fishes  do  not 
know  it,  God  will!  " 

Midway  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Golden  Horn  stand 
the  most  picturesque  castles  known  to  the  world,  one  on  each  side 
of  the  Straits,  Anatolio  and  Roumelia.  They  were  the  old  defenses 
of  Constantinople,  or,  rather,  the  means  by  which  the  Turks  com- 
manded the  Bosporus  before  the  fall  of  the  city. 

There  are  high  points  of  view  in  Asia — eighteen  hundred  feet 
high — from  the  peaks  of  which  a  magnificent  and  peerless  pano- 
rama is  exhibited. 

One  never  tires  of  the  verdure-clad  hills  and  the  gardens,  the 
lovely  views,  the  picturesque  landscape,  the  princely  residences, 
tne  palaces  by  the  Straits,  and  the  magic  power  by  which  on  a 
little  fairy  pinnace  you  may  dance  over  the  swift,  translucent 
waters,  and  so  speed  your  craft  that  you  may  light  your  cigar  in 
Europe  and  shake  off  the  ashes  in  Asia. 

During  the  summer  of  1886  we  lived  among  the  "  Isles  of  the 
Princes,''  and  every  day,  on  our  way  from  Prinkipo — one  of  these 
fairy  isles — we  pass  near  the  enchanting  Chrysopolis  on  the  Asiatic 
shore.  It  is  a  mile  and  a  half  off  the  Seraglio  Point.  It  has  half  a 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  They  are  generally  people  of 
cultivation.  The  situation  is  romantic.  It  is  on  an  elevation. 
It  is  the  rendezvous  of  many  merchants,  whose  caravans  of  camels 
make  it  a  terminus  as  they  travel  from  Persia  and  Armenia  to  the 


CITY  OF  THE  DEAD. 


475 


capital.  It  is  a  place  of  historic  celebrity.  Constantine  the 
Great  here  fought  and  conquered  Licinius.  It  is  chiefly  notable 
for  its  English  cemetery,  where  are  buried  the  heroes  of  the 
Crimea,  and  where  many  superb  monuments  may  be  seen,  which 
are  quite  in  contrast  with  those  of  the  Turkish,  Hebrew  and 
other  cemeteries. 

Scutari  is  more  the  home  of  the  dead  than  the  living.  When 
you  land  upon  its  shore  you  are  but  a  few  yards  from  its  cemete- 
ries. There  the  acacia  blossoms  in  beauty;  there  its  withered 
flowers  fall  upon  the  graves;  there  the  Armenian  and  the  Turkish 
cemeteries  have  fellowship  in  a  common  mortality. 

My  description  now  has  to  do  with  the  Turkish  cemetery.  It 
stretches  along  the  hill  under  its  thickly  planted  cypresses.  Be- 
neath their  shadows  are  the  ghostly  headstones.  Foot-paths  lead 
you  into  green  glades  flecked  here  and  there  with  sunshine.  It  is 
indeed  a  "  City  of  the  Dead."  The  various  columns  and  stones 
lie  heavily  on  the  earth,  as  if  tired  of  bearing  the  burden  of  their 
eulogies.  Here  the  Moslem  sleeps  beside  his  wife  or  wives. 
The  turban  surmounts  his  headstone;  a  rose  defines  hers.  From 
the  turban  you  may  learn  his  profession,  like  that  of  the  soldier 
who  reposes  a  few  yards  off,  or  of  the  priest  in  the  same  vicinage. 
Some  of  the  turbans  lie  upon  the  ground,  struck  off  by  the  baton  of 
the  retainers  of  Mahmoud  II.  They  mark  the  graves  of  the 
Janizaries.  The  mutilated  turbans  half  buried  in  the  grass 
testify  to  their  disgrace.  You  observe  terraces  which  are  raised 
and  fenced  in  with  taste.  Within  their  precincts  are  columns  and 
tombstones  with  the  fez  crowning  them.  The  fez  is  painted  in 
bright  scarlet.  It  is  an  emblem  of  a  conspicuous  Effendi  or  Bey. 
As  to  this  cemetery  the  Turks  have  a  strange  idea.  They  think 
that  on  particular  times  sparks  of  fire  arise  from  the  graves,  and 
flicker  and  lose  themselves  among  the  boughs  of  the  cypresses. 
They  are  the  supposed  souls  of  the  departed.  When  I  was  a 
child  I  had  the  same  feeling  about  the  graveyards  of  Ohio.  But 
science  soon  taught  me  that  the  decaying  bones  made  phospho- 
rus, and  that  the  phosphorus  was  the  ignis-fatuus  of  the  super- 
stitious.    This  is  chemistry. 

Constantinople  should  take  more  heed  of  the  degradation 
of  some  of  the  cemeteries  on  the  European  side ;  for  I  am 
no  believer  in  the  statement  that  the  reason  why  the  ceme- 
tery   of    Scutari    is   preferred  and  guarded    is,    that   the    Turk 


476 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 


seeks  to  be  buried  there  because  he  expects  to  be  expelled  from 
Europe. 

These  cemeteries  are  so  great  in  number  that  the  tomb- 
stones around  the  city  outnumber  the  living  in  the  city.  They 
are  not  altogether  cheerless,  except  those  that  have  been  de- 
serted. They  are  often  decorated  with  colors,  and  the  white 
sandstone  more  or  less  bespangled  with  gold.  They  are  in 
strange  contrast  with  the  dark  cypresses  which  enshroud  them. 


THE  TURKISH  CEMETERY  AT  SCUTARI. 


I  have  elsewhere  written  of  the  mysterious  birds  which  fly 
restlessly  up  and  down  the  Bosporus.  These  birds,  in  their 
never-pausing  unrest,  seem  never  to  be  wooed  to  the  earth.  Still, 
they  are  compelled  to  be  above  the  water.  I  am  told  that  there  is 
one  exception:  when  the  tempest  rages  over  Marmora  or  sweeps 
down  the  valley  of  the  Bosporus,  these  birds  shriek  and  fly  in 
wild  flocks  to  the  cypress  forests  of  Scutari.     There   they  find 


FUNERALS. 


477 


shelter.  This  begets  a  superstition  quite  natural  in  the  Orient; 
for  the  Turk  believes  them  to  be  the  souls  of  the  damned  who 
have  found  sepulchre  beneath  the  cypress  boughs.  They  believe 
that  these  souls  are  permitted,  during  wild  convulsions  of  nature, 
to  return  to  the  spots  where  the  body  is  buried. 

The  practice  of  burial  among  the  Turks  is  not  unlike  that  of 
other  people  in  the  Orient,  but  it  is  very  unlike  our  own.  On 
the  death  of  a  Mussulman,  the  body  is  first  washed  with  warm 
water.  It  is  then  enveloped  in  a  shroud  of  white  cotton  cloth  and 
placed  in  a  coffin  made  of  plain  unpolished  wood.  The  lid,  of  a 
raised  form,  is  then  screwed  down  and  covered  with  a  Persian 
shawl,  of  value  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  deceased. 
The  coffin  is  borne  to  the  mosque  on  the  shoulders  of  friends  of 
the  deceased.  When  it  arrives,  it  is  placed  on  a  marble  table. 
Prayers  are  recited  by  the  parish  Imam.  After  this  it  is  taken  to 
the  cemetery  and  buried  without  other  ceremonial.  Over  the  grave 
are  afterward  placed  upright,  two  stones,  one  at  the  head  and  the 
other  at  the  feet.  Upon  these,  verses  of  the  Koran  are  inscribed. 
The  same  grave  cannot  be  re-opened  at  any  time  for  the  reception 
of  another  body,  even  if  belonging  to  the  same  family.  The 
Sultans  and  members  of  the  Imperial  family  are  always  buried  in 
the  mosques  or  mausoleums  which  they  have  had  constructed 
during  their  lifetime.  Large  wax  candles  are  placed  round  the 
tomb,  which  is  also  covered  with  Persian  shawls  of  great  value, 
and  on  which  are  embroidered  in  gold  letters  the  name  of  the 
deceased  Sultan  and  appropriate  quotations  from  the  Koran. 

"Kismet"  compels  the  Turk  to  abstain  from  demonstration 
of  sorrow.  He  regards  it  as  unmanly  as  well  as  irreligious  to 
weep.  The  corpse  is  buried  soon  after  death.  Few  accompany 
it  to  the  grave.  The  grave  of  the  Turk  is  shallower  than  that  in 
our  country.  His  coffin  is  plain.  There  is  a  quiet  prayer,  and 
the  body  is  deposited.  Then  the  grave  is  filled  up.  Water,  which 
is  always  his  symbol  of  purity,  is  sprinkled  over  the  grave  by  the 
nearest  relative.  The  idea  of  water  upon  the  grave  is  from  the 
Arabic.  It  is  symbolic  and  poetic.  It  indicates  that,  like  a 
plant  well  watered,  the  soul  will  rise  to  immortality.  The  cemete- 
ries around  Constantinople,  and  especially  the  cemetery  in  which  I 
was  in  the  habit  of  walking,  and  which  was  constantly  under  my 
eye  in  Pera,  is  almost  fantastic.  It  looks  abandoned.  The  turbans 
are  chopped  off  by  some  iconoclast.     The  very  emblem  of  the 


478  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Turk  has  disappeared.  One  thing  is  observed:  that,  on  every 
gravestone  that  can  be  deciphered,  the  trade  of  the  dead  man  is 
symbolized  by  the  anvil,  the  adze,  the  lancet  or  the  inkstand. 
They  represent  the  occupation  of  the  occupant  m  life.  The  graves 
of  the  Turkish  women,  of  course,  have  no  turban.  There  is  no 
lying  panegyric.  One  singular  thing  belongs  to  all  the  tombstones : 
in  their  upper  corner  are  some  little  cavities;  these  are  filled 
with  water.  What  does  this  mean  ?  It  invites  the  birds  to  take  a 
drink,  and  entices  them  to  give  their  carol  and  their  cheer  to 
the  graveyard  and  the  dead.  This  is  an  Oriental  custom  not 
limited  to  the  Turk.  Moses  taught  similar  hospitality  to  the 
feathered  race.     Mahomet  copied  hi^  code  from  Moses. 

After  all,  I  end  this  chapter  as  I  began,  with  the  walls.  The 
most  interesting  monument  left  by  the  Byzantine  empire  is, 
beyond  doubt,  the  walls.  These  once  formed  one  triple  wall. 
They  were  built  by  Justinian  in  the  sixth  century.  The  highest 
was  thirty  feet  high.  Each  line  was  crenelated  on  top  and 
flanked  at  intervals  by  towers.  There  was  a  broad,  deep  moat 
with  dams  at  intervals.  The  moat  is  now  dry,  except  when 
watered  for  the  vegetable  gardens,  for  which  it  is  used.  The 
stones  of  the  walls  have  proved  a  godsend  in  two  ways:  first, 
they  furnished  a  revenue  to  the  mother  of  the  Sultan.  That  is 
now  abrogated.  Secondly,  they  furnished  the  cheap  raw  material 
for  the  buildings  of  the  city.  That  is  now  in  disuse.  Their  best 
use  is  as  a  monumental  lesson  of  the  vicissitudes  of  empire  and 
the  fragility  of  power.  Outside  them  are  the  cemeteries,  whose 
tenants  have  no  census — and,  in  fact,  neither  have  the  living — 
and  whose  tenure  is  much  more  assured  than  that  of  the  living, 
who  fill  these  fields  of  mortality  upon  every  festive  occasion. 

There  is  one  gate  of  the  walls  called  the  Top  Kapu.  Through 
it  the  Turks  penetrated  to  the  city  on  its  fall ;  for  through  this  gate 
the  first  fifty  Turks  entered  the  city.  It  is  now  known  as  the 
gate  of  St.  Romanus.  Another  alias  is  that  of  the  Gate  of  the 
Big  Gun,  for  here,  as  is  alleged,  the  monstrous  gun,  made  by 
Orban,  was  brought  by  the  aid  of.  fifty  oxen,  four  hundred  men 
and  a  corps  of  carpenters  to  repair  the  bridges  and  roads  over 
which  it  was  moved.  It  required  two  months  to  make  the  usual 
march  of  two  days  from  Adrianople,  seven  hundred  men  to  serve 
it  and  two  hours  to  load  it.  In  the  end,  after  battering  the  gate 
and  tower,  it  hoisted  into  eternity  its  engineer.     But  who  mourns 


THE  HEADLESS  BODY. 


479 


for  Orban  now,  and,  for  the  matter  of  that,  how  few  mourn  for 
Krupp,  whose  guns  are  lazing  their  time  away  upon  the  Plaza  of 
Tophane  ! 

Another  gate  is  called  the  Silivri.     It  is  within  a  mile  of  the 
Sea  of  Marmora.     It  is  upon  the  edge  of  a  cemetery.     In  that 


TOMB  OF  ALL 


cemetery,  dark  with  cyjiresses,  is  the  grave  of  one  AH  Pasha  of 
Janina.  He  is  the  hero  of  the  Albanian  conflict.  Over  his  grave 
is  written  : 

"He  rendered  himself  independent  for  more  than  thirty  years. 
Here  lies  his  head.     No  prayers  are  requested." 

Who  was  AH  ?    Why  was  he  headless,  —or  bodiless  ? 


480  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Ali  was  born  in  upper  Epirus,  of  an  Albanian-Mahometan 
family.  His  father  was  a  brigand.  He  returned  to  the  bosom  of 
his  family  in  order  to  exterminate  them,  and  so  as  to  swell  the 
fruits  of  his  pillage.  Strange  to  tell,  he  was  attached  to  his  mother, 
Khanco.  She  was  a  brigand.  She  had  been  captured,  outraged 
and  freed.  Ali  promised  her,  when  she  was  dying,  to  exterminate 
the  people  of  the  town  where  she  was  outraged.  This  he  did 
afterward,  when  he  became  Pasha  of  Janina,  with  a  vengeance. 
He  became  master  of  the  Pashalic  by  becoming  a  devoted  servant 
of  the  Porte.  He  destroyed  the  brigands  in  order  to  be  chief  of 
the  country.  He  distributed  the  booty  where  it  would  do  the  most 
good — in  Constantinople.  From  time  to  time  he  was  promoted 
by  the  Porte,  until  its  officials  became  suspicious  of  him  and  of  his 
rich  presents  to  members  of  the  Divan.  He  was  authorized  by  an 
order  from  the  Sultan  to  destroy  the  Suliotes.  This  was  the  sen- 
sation at  the  beginning  of  this  century.  The  Suliotes  had  planted 
the  Cross  over  their  mountains  as  a  signal  of  liberty.  They  chal- 
lenged the  Mahometans,  and  Ali  as  their  chief.  He  became 
invested  with  a  title  only  next  to  that  of  grand  vizier. 

This  being  the  character  and  conduct  of  Ali  Pasha,  it  was  not 
difficult  to  find  the  clue  to  his  life  and  death.  The  most  interest- 
ing statement  is  in  a  volume  entitled,  "  The  Eastern  Shores  ol 
the  Adriatic  in  a.  d.  1883,"  by  the  Viscountess  Strangford.  I  may 
remark,  in  a  prefatory  way,  that  this  lady  is  the  author  of  some 
other  Oriental  books.  She  had  much  trouble  in  her  travels  from 
Russian  authorities,  and  as  I  write  these  lines  I  find  in  the 
current  journals  that  she  has  just  died.  She  was  a  wonderful 
woman  in  her  prime. 

In  the  volume  there  is  a  description  of  Janina.  It  is  the  capital 
of  southern  Albania.  It  was  a  part  of  my  enthusiasm,  never 
realized,  to  go  there  with  my  Dalmatian  servant,  Pedro,  who  was 
born  near  by.  It  is  a  city  which  is  set  upon  a  mountain  and  can- 
not be  hid,  but  the  lady  to  whom  I  have  referred  accomplished  the 
journey  and  stood  before  the  city  with  all  its  lovely  tenderness  of 
scenery.  It  was  a  land  with  the  glory  of'  Greece  and  the  beauty 
of  Italy.  The  city  is  above  the  clouds.  Upon  its  eminence  can 
be  seen  higher  distant  mountains,  snow  clad,  and  a  lake  as  blue  as 
the  ^gean  itself.  Within  the  lake  is  an  island.  On  the  island  is 
a  fortification.  The  city  itself,  with  its  white  houses  with  red 
roofs,  is  a  picture  in  a  romance.    It  is  rarely  visited  by  the  tourist. 


CAREER  OF  ALl  PASHA.  48 1 

The  meadows  are  only  equaled  by  the  gardens  which  surround 
the  lake,  down  upon  which  look  the  grand  groups  of  the  blanched 
Find  us,  with  all  the  classic  sanctity  of  purity.  There  are,  how- 
ever, in  the  neighborhood  some  dirty,  dull  brown  mountains,  with 
a  little  appearance  of  rock  breaking  through  their  uncrisped  slopes. 
This  last  dainty  sentence  is  that  of  the  Viscountess.  The  lake  is 
about  three-fourths  of  a  mile  wide.  It  reflects  the  mountains  of 
Mitzikeli.  Upon  the  island  lies  the  headless  body  of  Ali, 
whose  head  is  supposed  to  be  in  the  cemetery  near  the  walls 
of  Constantinople.  The  lake  is  seven  miles  long  and  three  miles 
wide.  It  is  not  supplied  from  the  mountain,  but  from  its  own 
springs.  The  only  historic  incident  about  Janma  is  that  which 
appertains  to  our  Ali  Pasha.  Why  should  the  Turks  any  more 
than  the  Greeks  bear  him  honor?  That  will  be  developed  by  a 
short  synopsis  of  his  career.  That  career  is  distinguished  by  the 
fact  that  he  was  in  constant,  and  in  the  end  successful,  rebellion. 
He  was  the  exterminator  of  the  Suliotes,  who  desired  of  all  things 
to  be  independent  in  their  mountains.  When  Mahmoud  the 
Second,  who  killed  off  the  Janizaries,  undertook  to  control  this  dis- 
tant Albania  as  a  part  of  his  empire,  he  found  Ali  in  possession. 
Ali  mistook  the  sagacity  and  quietude  of  the  Sultan  for  weak- 
ness. Ali  defied  him.  This  was  in  a.  d.  1820.  The  Sultan  deprived 
him  of  his  rule  at  this  mountain  capital,  and  sent  an  army  to 
enforce  the  degradation.  The  Suliotes  had  been  exiled  to 
Corfu,  but  at  the  Sultan's  command  they  re-entered  their  oM 
country  of  Albania.  In  the  last  of  the  year  a.  d.  1820,  they  made  a 
junction  with  the  Mussulman  Albanians,  who  were  devoted  to  Ali. 
Then  the  Greek  revolution — so  celebrated  in  the  speeches  of  Web- 
ster and  Clay,  and  the  poetry  of  Byron  and  Halleck — broke  out  in 
the  Morea.  Among  the  many  mixtures  of  race  in  this  Albanian 
country,  the  Suliotes  stood  prominent  for  their  sturdy  pluck. 
Many  of  them  enrolled  themselves  under  Lord  Byron. 

The  name  of  the  Suliote  is  almost  forgotten  ;  but  that  of  the 
despot,  Ali  Pasha,  lives  on,  not  by  his  own  virtue,  but  by  virtue 
of  the  strange  tomb  near  Constantinople. 

The  Viscountess  to  whom  I  have  referred,  states  that  the 
body  of  Ali,  together  with  the  body  of  his  wife  Emine,  whom  he 
shot  down  with  his  own  hand,  in  his  fury  because  she  favored  the 
Suliotes,  is  beneath  a  turban-topped  headstone  in  Janina.  If  it 
ever  was  buried  there,  it  has  been  removed  since. 


482  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

I  must  tell  the  story  of  All's  death.  He  is  under  the  Sultan's 
ban.  On  the  29th  of  January,  a.  d.  1822,  he  is  assured  of  forgive- 
ness. He  is  induced  to  leave  his  citadel  in  the  lake  and  cross  over 
to  a  monastery.  Here  he  settles  himself  in  a  room  next  to  that  of 
his  favorite  wife,  Vassiliki.  He  is  visited,  in  good  faith  as  he  sup- 
poses, by  Mehmet  Pasha,  the  Sultan's  general  in  Epiros.  Meh- 
met  enters  the  room;  he  fires  a  pistol  at  Ali.  The  shot  misses. 
Ali  fires  back.  His  shot  misses.  Ali,  however,  is  wounded  in 
the  hand  by  a  shot  from  an  aide-de-camp  of  Mehmet.  Then  the 
old  tiger  prepares  to  fight,  with  his  fangs  keen  and  his  claws 
unvelveted.  His  wife  binds  up  his  bleeding  hand.  His  enemies 
beneath  his  room  shoot  at  him  through  the  floor.  A  shot  takes 
mortal  effect,  and  he  dies.  Mehmet  then  breaks  into  the  room 
and  chops  off  All's  head  with  a  cimeter.  It  is  sent,  along  with 
the  wife,  across  the  lake.  Thence  they  are  despatched  to  Con- 
stantinople. 

Now  here  arises  my  difficulty.  The  question  is  :  Whether 
the  head  of  this  man  was  sent  to  Constantinople,  or  his  body 
without  the  head  ?  Is  Ali  buried  here — a  headless  body  or  a 
bodiless  head  ?  It  does  not  matter  much  in  these  times;  but  the 
best  impression  is,  that  the  tomb  at  Constantinople  makes  a  decent 
request  when  it  asks  the  traveler  not  to  make  superfluous  prayers, 
as  the  head  is  not  there. 

The  treasures  of  this  wonderful  Ali  Pasha,  like  those  of  Cap- 
tain Kidd,  are  still  sought  after  in  the  country  which  he  ruled  so 
despotically  and  cruelly.  He  is  an  illustration  of  a  class  of 
Oriental  heroes,  like  that  which  includes  Mehemet  Ali,  of  Egypt, 
who  was  an  Albanian.  This  last  hero  conquered  not  only  Egypt, 
and  left  it  to  his  descendants,  but  overcame  Syria  as  well.  He 
would  have  taken  Constantinople,  even  as  against  Mahmoud  the 
Second,  but  for  the  union  against  him  of  the  European  forces. 
The  Albanian  may  be  a  murderous,  vindictive  and  terrific  race — 
or  perhaps  they  were  so  in  the  past — but  they  have  made  great 
struggles  for  independence,  and  are  worthy  of  many  illuminated 
pages  in  the  history  of  freedom  among  the  mountains  of  our  globe. 

A  visit  to  the  "  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Europe  and  Asia  on  Friday 
reveals  more  of  the  old  Turkish  enchantment,  such  as  we  asso- 
ciate with  the  extravagance  of  an  Eastern  story-teller,  than  any 
other  incident.  I  ought  not  to  undertake  to  describe  visits  to  these 
**  Sweet  Waters  "  upon  their  gala-days,  for  that  is  beyond  my 


Ill y  ■'  ''iW'iii 

Plri  'mi 

.'I  /  h 


4B3 


484 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


unfacilepen.     May  I  make  the  attempt,  however,    to  picture  the 
"  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Asia? 

The  valley  of  Jeuiuksuy,  when  thronged,  is  essentially  Oriental. 
There  is  a  grateful  coolness  which  tempers  the  noontide  sunshine, 
a  fresh  breeze  from  the  Bosporus,  and  an  inviting  turf  upon  which 
the  ladies  spread  their  carpets.  Screened  from  the  dust  by  the  trees, 
and  separated  from  the  men  who  resort  to  these  bossy  shades,  the 
women  enjoy  their  cigarettes  and  chibouques,  their  sherbets  and 


l^i 


GROUP  OF  TURKISH   WOMEN   AT   THK    "SWEET  WATERS. 


melons.  Here  the  wives  of  the  Pashas  and  Beys,  Effendis  and 
Emirs,  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  the  ^^ kadeun  chibouque"  or 
women's  pipe.  Here  slaves  wait  upon  their  mistresses.  Here 
is  the  vender  of  sweetmeats,  with  his  wooden  platter  upon  his  head, 
and  the  vender  of  ice-cream,  with  his  yoke  upon  his  shoulder. 
Here  are  seen  sometimes,  gratifying  the  children,  the  dancing 
bears  and  monkeys.  Here  is  the  water-carrier,  with  his  large 
turban,  his  graceful  classic  jar,  and  his  crystal  goblet.     Here  are 


TURKISH  LOVE  OF  NATURE. 


485 


the  negroes — the  eunuchs  of  the  upper  ten  thousand — moving 
around  with  carpets,  pipes  and  refreshments  for  their  mistresses 
If  it  be  in  the  fruit  season,  here  are  venders  of  peaches,  plums, 
nectarines,  apricots,  tchoussi  grapes,  pistachio  nuts,  and  filberts, 
all  decorated  with  fresh  green  leaves  about  them,  not  to  speak  of 
the  melon  merchants,  selling  their  delicious  fruit  for  a  very  small 
sum.  If  your  eyes  be  not  surfeited,  and  your  ear  loves  music, 
here  is  the  rattle  of  the  tambourine,  the  wiry  sound  of  the  rebec, 
and  the  shrill,  high  voices  of  the  Greeks,  who  for  a  few  piastres 
complete  this  Oriental  picture  and  make  the  valley,  with  its  trees, 
its  personnel,  its  shadov/s,  and  its  domesticities,  a.  perpetual 
reminder  of  the  stories  of  the  East.     In  fine,  here  is,  indeed — 

"  A  glowing  scene  of  water,  leaves  and  light, 

And  whiie-veiled  dames  and  turban'd  men  are  here  ; 
And  all  around,  the  earth  and  sea  are  bright 
And  beautiful  in  the  sunshiny  air." 

^Vhen  evening  draws  the  curtain  over  the  distant  city  and  sea, 
the  arabis  and  carriages  are  hailed  by  the  slaves,  and  quietly  "wind 
o'er  the  lea  "  for  their  homes  in  Asia,  and  the  caiques  are  called 
to  bear  their  freight  over  the  blue  waves  of  the  pellucid  waters. 
Thus  endeth  the  Friday's  outing  of  the  harem  at  the  Asian 
"Sweet  Waters."  The  European  waters  are  like  unto  them, 
only  there  are  a  thousand  people  at  the  latter  for  a  hundred  at 
the  former.  Besides,  the  style  and  rank  of  the  habitues  of  the 
"Sweet  Waters"  of  Europe  outvie  those  of  Asia. 

When  the  Turkish  woman  leaves  the  harem,  in  company  with 
her  co-wives  and  slaves  and  children,  she  seeks  the  most  delight- 
ful natural  resorts.  It  is  not  for  the  woman  of  the  West,  with  the 
elaborate  dissipation  of  the  ball,  the  waltz,  and  the  champagne 
supper  in  the  gilded  salon,  to  find  fault  with  the  Osmanli  hanoum, 
who  seeks  the  breeze,  the  heath  and  the  wooded  valley,  where 
nature  displays  her  rarest  charms,  and  where  the  sweetness  and 
freshness  of  the  air,  enhance  the  pleasure  far  beyond  the  gas- 
lighted  halls  of  Occidental  luxury. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN  FEATURES  IN  TURKEY. 

One  phase  of  the  advancement  of  the  Turkish  people  has  been 
in  the  direction  of  simplicity.  We  have  read  the  grand  titles  in 
which  the  earlier  Sultans  rejoiced.  We  have  seen  their  curtail- 
ment in  recent  years.  The  Capitulations  and  Articles  of  Peace 
between  Great  Britain  and  Turkey,  confirmed  at  the  Dardanelles 
in  A.  D.  1809,  in  the  preface  displays  how  glorious  was  once, 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  the  ascription  of  all  praise  and 
honor  to  His  Majesty.     It  was  thus: 

"  SULTAN  MEHEMED,  MAY  HE  LIVE  FOREVER  ! 

"  Let  everything  be  observed  in  conformity  to  these  Capitulations, 
and  contrary  thereto,  let  nothing  be  done. 

"  The  command,  under  the  sublime  and  lofty  Signet,  which 
imparts  sublimity  to  every  place,  and  under  the  imperial  and  noble 
Cypher,  whose  glory  is  renowned  throughout  all  the  world,  by  the 
Emperor  and  Conqueror  of  the  earth,  achieved  with  the  assistance 
of  the  Omnipotent,  and  by  the  special  grace  of  God,  is  this  : 

*'We,  who  by  Divine  grace,  assistance,  will  and  benevolence 
now  are  the  King  of  Kings  of  the  world,  the  Prince  of  Emperors 
of  every  age,  the  dispenser  of  Crowns  to  Monarchs,  and  the  Cham- 
pion Sultan  Mehemed,  Son  of  Sultan  Ibrahim  Chan,  Son  of  Sul- 
tan Ahmed  Chan,  Son  of  Sultan  Mahommet  Chan,  Son  of  Sultan 
Murad  Chan,  Son  of  Sultan  Selim  Chan,  Son  of  Sultan  Solyman 
Chan,  Son  of  Sultan  Selim  Chan." 

This  rigmarole  is  no  longer  customary,  even  in  treaties.  The 
very  orthography  is  changed.  The  Ottoman  is  a  contradiction  in 
many  ways.  He  loves  to  abase  himself,  in  order  to  be  exalted. 
His  teaching  and  his  ideal  hero  are  Christian  in  this  regard.  The 
lives  of  the  Prophet  himself,  and  of  the  greatest  of  the  Sultans, 
Othman,  remind  him  of  the  grandeur  of  those  who  died  in  poverty. 
Sometimes  he  carries  his  humility  to  excess.     He  practises  the 

486 


PRIDE  APING  HUMILITY. 


487 


pride  which  apes  humility.  Let  me  illustrate  by  a  fable  which 
I  found  in  one  of  the  odd  volumes  that  I  happened  upon  in  some 
literary  explorations.  The  time  of  the  story  is  in  the  third  cen- 
tury of  the  Prophet.  The  place  is  Egypt.  The  person  is  a  cadi 
of  Cairo.  He  is  named  Mansiir  bin  Musia.  He  cannot  stand 
this  grandiose  name.  It  had  once  an  original  meaning.  Was  it 
not  compounded  from  some  parental  prescription  ?  It  literally 
meant  Victor,  son  of  Moses  !  He  divides  it  into  five  syllables. 
Thus  :  Man-Siir-Bin-Mii-Sia.  The  old  volume  I  refer  to  has  a 
diagram  of  the  name  as  humiliated,  thus  : 


Syllables  of  the  orig- 
inal name. 

Meaning  of  original. 

Substitute. 

Meaning  of   Substi- 
tute. 

Man 

Stir 

Name    of    a    heavy 

weight  of  40  lbs. 
A  large  trumpet    ... 
The  son 

Ratal 

Biik 

Pound. 
Small  bugle. 
Slave. 

Bin  

Abd-al 

Pashm 

Panzdah 

Mji 

Hair        

Wool. 

Sia  

Thirty,  in  Persian. . . 

Fifteen. 

The  third  column  forms  his  new  name,  "Ratal  Biik  Abd-al 
Pashm  Panzdah,"  whose  humble  synonym  is  " Small-weight- 
Penny-whistle-Slave-of- Wool-Fifteen,"  instead  of  "  Heavy-weight- 
Trumpet-Son-of-Hair-Thirty  !  " 

The  title  of  the  Sultan  was  once  by  no  means  to  be  despised 
as  a  heavy-weighted  son  of  Hair.  It  used  to  be  a  mile  or  more 
long,  but  the  good  sense  of  the  new  rulers  here  has  clipped  off 
much  of  the  superfluous  title.  His  name  is  now  as  simple  as  his 
head-gear.  The  gear  of  the  head  is  always,  and  under  all  circum- 
stances, the  simple  red  fez.  The  Turk  is  a  democrat,  without 
guile  or  ostentation,  and,  as  will  appear  in  the  sequel,  he  never 
rides  fine  horses  when  he  can  walk,  honestly  ! 

I  have  said  that  Turkey  has  a  kind  of  democratic-republican 
society  and  government.  This  is  true  in  many  respects.  It  is  a  con- 
stitutional monarchy  under  the  constitution  of  December  23,  a.  d. 
1876.  This  the  Almanack  de  Gotha  recognizes,  but  the  Constitu- 
tion is  a  dead  letter  and  the  Almanack  is  a  bundle  of  ignorance,  in 
this  as  in  other  regards.  The  absence  of  a  hereditary  nobility — in 
fact,  the  lack  of  any  nobility — makes  it  free  from  one  of  the  worst 
taints  of  the  European  order.  It  has  its  system  of  government, 
made  up  of  Ministers  and  Senators,  a  Council  of  State,  police  regu- 
lations, and  administrative  divisions,  of  which  the  Sultan  is  nomi- 


488  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

nally — and  really,  when  he  pleases — the  absolute  head.  He  bears 
the  simple  title  of  Padishah.  It  is  a  title  of  honor.  It  comes  down 
through  many  generations  of  heroes.  Other  countries  retain  what 
Turkey  discards.  The  universal  Turkish  nation,  which  is  given 
much  to  gravity,  would,  for  instance,  be  humorously  inclined  if  a 
gentleman  was  introduced  to  them  bearing  the  name  of  Prince 
Charles  Frederic-Karafft-Ernest-Notger,  prince  et  Seigneur  d'  Oet- 
tingen-Oettingen  et  d'  Oettingen-Wallerstein,  Compte  de  Baldern, 
Seigneur  de  Soetern,  etc.;  and  yet  this  is  a  veritable  habitant 
between  the  leaves  of  the  absurd  Gotha  Almanack. 

Suppose  one  of  our  Western  orators  should  introduce  this 
gentleman  by  all  his  titles  to  an  American  audience,  say  in  the 
town  of  Kalamazoo,  Michigan,  or  Oshkosh,  Wisconsin,  would  he 
be  received  with  that  respect  which  is  due  to  a  son  of  royalty,  or 
would  he  be  met  with  universal  guffaws  ?  Alas  !  for  the  irrev- 
erent audacity  of  the  American  gamin  and  his  unvenerated  parent 
— this  query  is  easily  answered  for  both  the  original  tree  and  its 
scion  ! 

And  yet,  even  in  America  we  have  prefixes  to  our  names  not 
established  by  law,  and  only  allowed  by  custom.  "Esq."  and 
"Hon."  are  quite  sufficient  illustrations  that  we  are  not  alto- 
gether free  from  this  anti-republican  taint.  Compared  with  other 
countries,  we  are,  like  Turkey,  comparatively  untainted.  Russia 
is  very  unlike  Turkey  in  this  matter.  Titles  prevail  there  to  an 
extravagant  extent.  The  salutations  are  profound  and  elaborate. 
It  is  so  especially  in  the  army.  The  soldier  never  addresses 
an  officer  without  standing  at  "  Attention  "  !  with  his  hand  at  his 
cap  during  the  whole  conversation.  He  does  not  answer  a  ques- 
tion categorically  with  a  ''  yes,  sir,"  or  "  no,  sir,"  but  with  a  cir- 
cumlocution, "quite  so,"  or  "not  exactly  so."  He  addresses  a 
general  as  "  Your  Excellency,"  princes  and  counts  are  lUustri- 
ousnesses,  and  a  field-officer  "  Your  High  Nobility."  A  com- 
pany officer,  "Your  Nobility."  If  he  has  occasion  to  speak  to 
the  Emperor  himself,  and  desires  to  say,  "We  are  glad  to  serve 
you,"  he  says  this  :  "  Otchen  radom,  Vass  Imperatorsky  veleetches- 
too."  One  would  think  that  a  Russian  name  was  sesquipedalian 
enough,  without  adding  to  it  an  elongated  sneeze  and  a  super- 
abundance of  titular  caudle-appendages.  An  American,  not  long 
ago,  stated  that  a  Russian  nobleman  who  recently  died  had  a 
name  so  long  that  it  could  not  be  sent  by  cable,  and  Lhat  he  could 


TITLES,  AD  NAUSEAM.  489 

shell  an  ear  of  corn  with  it  and  have  enough  left  over  for  a 
barbed  wire  fence,  a  nail  cloth  and  springs  for  a  mattress.  This 
is  too  exaggerative. 

In  France,  when  it  was  a  monarchy,  the  King  was  always  called 
Sire ;  in  England  he  was  addressed  as  Sir ;  the  Queens  were 
called  Madame,  and  the  Imperial  Princes  in  France  were  called 
Monseigneur.  The  German  sovereigns  of  both  sexes  are  called 
<*  Majesty,"  and  the  Princes  "  Hohheit."  The  Pope  is  styled  "His 
Holiness,"  like  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  the  cardinals 
are  called  "  Eminences."  In  Persia,  the  Shah  is  called  "  the 
Asylum  of  the  Universe."  In  the  European  countries  there  is, 
or  was,  a  title,  as  a  prefix,  generally  recognized.  But  Turkey  had, 
and  has,  no  nobility.  It  is  only  of  late  years,  I  think,  that  some 
of  these  prefixes,  like  "  Excellency  "  for  a  Minister,  have  become 
common,  ad  nauseam.  This  custom  is  referable  to  the  Legations 
and  others  besides  the  Ottoman  people.  Of  one  thing  here  I 
became  weary — I  may  say  of  two  things;  first,  of  being  so  much 
waited  on  ;  second,  of  being  dubbed  "  Son  Excellence  !"  upon  the 
slightest  provocation  by  everybody,  even  by  American  tourists, 
who  tall  into  the  absurd  custom.  If  the  Ottoman  would  only  adopt 
some  of  the  names  belonging  to  the  Slav  or  Greek,  he  would  have 
no  need  of  any  prefix  or  affix.  Taking  the  former  Greek  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  for  instance,  Mr.  Pappamichalopoulos,  or  even  the 
name  of  the  Greek  Minister  to  Constantinople,  Monsieur  Coun- 
douriotti,  and  you  have  enough  in  the  surname  without  any 
aristocratic  appendages.  Queen  Victoria  might  herself  take  a 
lesson  from  this  simplicity  of  the  Osmanli  in  the  matter  of  titles, 
and  thereby  save  much  to  her  scriveners  now  and  hereafter.  It 
has  pleased  Her  Majesty  to  order,  of  her  royal  pleasure,  that  the 
sons  and  daughters  born  of  the  marriage  of  His  Highness,  Prince 
Henry  ^Maurice  of  Battenberg,  with  Her  Royal  Highness, 
Princess  Beatrice  Maria  Victoria  Theodora,  shall  at  all  times  hold 
and  enjoy  the  style  of  "  Highness."  Let  us  draw  a  long  breath 
in  anticipation  of  such  high  distinctions  of  the  unborn  Hessians 
and  Guelphs. 

It  may  or  may  not  be  a  matter  of  interest  to  state  that  one 
of  my  Diversions  to  overcome  one  of  the  difficulties  of  the  posi- 
tion of  Minister,  was  in  remembering  the  remarkable  names  of 
those  with  whom  it  was  my  duty  and  pleasure  to  meet  socially 
and  diplomatically.     How  did  I  accomplish  it  ?     By  a  system  of 


490  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

mnemonics  not  peculiar  to  myself.  I  tried,  with  discreet  and 
laudatory  rhyme,  to  arrange  the  several  cards  so  as  to  associate 
the  names  with  euphonious  sounds.  How  the  names  rise  now 
in  my  memory  !  Dear  Kaiserlich  Deutscher  Botschafts  Predi- 
ger — whose  function  was  so  much  more  extensive  than  his  name  : 
for  he  was  only  the  good  German  pastor,  Suhle  !  There  was 
Jarasynski  and  Blankeregg  :  the  one  a  Pole  and  the  other  a  Hun- 
garian ;  the  Roumanian  Consul  Ecsarho,  Mavroyeni  and  Con- 
stantindini  ;  Grouitch  and  Bakitch,  Servian  and  Montenegrin, 
genial  and  just  representatives  ;  Ghica,  the  princeliest  of  princes, 
and  Svetchine,  the  suave  Secretary  ;  Wallenberg  and  d'  Ehren- 
hoff,  kindest  of  Norse  gentlemen  ;  the  Belgian  Borchgrave  and 
Godel-Lannoy,  of  Austria ;  Ivanow  and  Smirnow,  Ortiz  de 
Zugasti  and  Coella  de  Portugal,  Canzuch  and  Metaxas  !  These 
are  names  upon  whose  circle  we  weave  many  flowers  of  pleasant 
memories.  But  what  a  relief  when  we  struck  such  plain  patro- 
nymics as  Woods  Pasha,  Hobart  Pasha,  Bax  Ironside,  Bruce, 
Lowther,  De  Gratz,  Towers,  Fane,  Fawcett,  Wrench  and  Potter  ; 
not  to  omit  Blacque  Bey  and  Sir  William  White,  Sir  Drummond 
Wolff  and  the  Rev.  George  Washington  ! 

It  is  not  a  very  great  Diversion  ;  nevertheless,  when  one  be- 
comes reminiscent,  it  becomes  amusing  to  recognize  that  so  much 
depends,  in  Europe  and  elsewhere,  upon  the  name,  the  title,  the 
decoration,  or  the  rank  of  people  who  come  and  go,  both  as 
officers,  diplomats,  and  otherwise.    Let  me  give  an  illustration. 

For  many  years  the  office  of  Minister  to  Turkey  from  the 
United  States  was  simply  that  of  Minister  Resident.  That  made 
him  third  in  the  list  of  diplomatic  personages  at  the  various  courts: 
the  first  being  an  Ambassador  ;  the  second  being  an  Envoy 
Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  ;  the  third  being  Min- 
ister Resident ;  and  the  fourth  being  Charge  d'  Affaires.  When 
General  Wallace  began  his  services  in  Turkey  in  1881,  he  was  sim- 
ply a  Minister  Resident.  Perhaps  it  irked  the  author  of  "  Ben 
Hur"  greatly  to  know  that  while  he  could  soar,  as  few  men  of 
genius  can,  into  the  hierarchy  of  literature,  and  dwell  among  the 
princes  of  the  earth,  or  revel  in  the  Valhalla,  with  the  great  ones 
of  the  Elder  Day — while  in  gorgeous  and  glowing  imagery  he 
could  depict  Oriental  scenes  with  rarest  skill,  learning  and  dra- 
matic power  ;  still,  as  Minister,  he  had  to  wait,  upon  every  official 
occasion,  and  in  all  the  various  phases  of  Oriental  etiquette,  while 


THE  ENVOY  AND  THE  AMBASSADOR. 


491 


some  ignoramus  of  an  Envoy  from  a  little  state,  or  some  swell  of 
an  Ambassador  from  an  effete  dynasty,  took  precedence  of  the 
representative  of  many  millions  of  progressive  and  free  people. 
I  will  not  say  that  he  ever  complained  of  this  inversion  of  official 
and  personal  dignity,  although  when  I  was  in  Constantinople  in 
1 88 1,  he  did  use  some  democratic-republican  forms  of  speech 
which  I  thought  proper  and  pertinent.  To  these  I  have  added 
some  of  my  own  vehemence  since,  growing  out  of  my  own  expe- 
rience. I  happened  to  be  one  of  the  Legislators  who  helped 
to  raise  General  Wallace's  rank  from  Minister  Resident  to  that 
of  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary.  It  was 
done  to  add  one  step  to  his  rank  ;  but  it  was  not  enough,  as  the 
sequel  will  show. 

Now,  one  would  suppose  that  a  man  who  is  entitled  to  such 
magnificent  and  unabridged-dictionary  titles  as  Envoy  Extraor- 
dinary and  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  ought  to  take  precedence  of 
certain  representatives  at  the  court  of  the  Sultan  who  were 
representing  inferior  states.  I  have  occasion  to  feel  this  one 
sultry  afternoon  in  the  month  of  August,  1886.  Along  with  the 
dragoman,  Mr.  Gargiulo,  I  call  on  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  Said  Pasha,  at  the  Porte.  It  is  on  Monday,  when  all  the 
various  diplomats  are  received.  We  are  accustomed  to  record 
our  names  on  our  entree  to  the  reception-room.  My  arrival  is 
timely;  my  name  is  first  on  the  list,  as  an  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary!  It  is  2  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
and  the  thermometer  is  90°.  I  mop  the  perspiration  from  my 
brow,  and  am  about  to  be  ushered  into  the  presence  of  the 
Foreign  Minister  when,  lo!  Monsieur  Nellidoff,  the  Russian  Am- 
bassador, appears  all  aglow  with  heat  and  all  a-growl,  like  the 
Bear  of  the  North.  By  virtue  of  his  being  an  Ambassador,  he 
makes  his  courtesy,  takes  precedence,  and  goes  in.  Then  comes 
a  Minister  Resident  from  Greece.  I  have  precedence  of  him,  of 
course,  as  being  an  Envoy,  but  as  he  has  some  distance  to  go 
this  afternoon  up  the  Bosporus,  I  politely  yield  my  place  to 
him.  Thus  passes  away  about  an  hour,  the  thermometer  trem- 
bling at  91°  and  the  perspiration  running  in  canals  from  my 
corrugated  brow.  I  am  about  to  congratulate  myself  that  my 
time  has  come,  when  a  polite  and  facile  gentleman,  the  French 
Minister,  Count  de  Montholon — a  connection  of  Lafayette — with 
partialities    toward    our    country,   and  representing   a    republic. 


492  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY.   • 

appears.  He  is  registered  ;  he  passes  in;  and  the  Envoy  from 
America,  a  republic  which  antedates  his,  still  remains  outside. 
The  thermometer  is  still  rising  somewhere  among  the  nineties. 
The  four  thousand  pores  to  the  square  inch  on  the  cuticle  of  the 
Envoy  pour  forth  their  beaded  drops.  The  Count,  who  is  very 
polite  when  he  arrives,  remarks  : 

"I  am  quite  in  a  hurry,  Excellence!  you  will  be  detained  but 
a  few  moments." 

He  stays  about  an  hour.  As  I  have  to  go  to  the  island  of 
Prinkipo  this  afternoon,  and  am  rather  loath  to  test  the  sultriness 
which  sometimes  brings  storms  over  the  old  Propontis,  1  become 
quite  uneasy,  and  begin  to  perspire  freely  at  92°,  and  to  go  over 
in  my  mind  the  advantage  of  being  an  Ambassador,  when  Herr 
Radowitz,  the  German  Ambassador,  with  his  pleasant  smile  and 
shining  spectacles,  peeps  in  after  making  his  registry  and  the  cour- 
tesies, and  "  sorry  to  take  precedence  of  the  American  Minister," 
he  enters  in.  The  thermometer  begins  to  rage  fiercely  at  93°, 
and  the  perspiration  is  as  fluent  as  the  Bosporus.  I  knew  that 
he  would  not  stay  long.  The  representative  of  "  The  Honest 
Broker,"  as  Germany  has  been  called,  soon  despatches  his 
business,  to  mj'  great  relief.  Five  o'clock  is  shown  upon  the 
clock,  with  the  thermometer  still  rising  and  the  sweat  still  fall- 
ing ;  when — but  I  cannot  swear — when,  lo!  the  deaf-mute,  who 
still  hovers  around  Oriental  courts  and  Fortes,  appears.  He 
makes  his  signs,  and  gives  his  orders  as  an  "  unspeakable  Turk  " 
in  his  ineffable  way,  smiling  over  the  prospect  of  my  now  being 
reached  in  order,  and  over  the  backsheesh  at  the  end  of  my  long 
experience  with  the  thermometer  and  the  ambassadors,  when  lo  ! 
the  Ambassador  from  Persia  is  announced  !  Mashallah!  He  takes 
precedence,  of  course.  Is  he  not  known  as  His  Excellency  Mar- 
shal Mirza  Mohsin  Khan  ?  CAN  is  the  way  to  spell  it,  with 
capital  letters;  for  he  goes  in  !  He  is  accompanied  by  his  cousin, 
who  is  also  quite  a  dignitary  of  the  Legation;  and  without  saying 
"  by  your  leave,"  or  looking  at  the  list,  the  thermometer  or  the 
clock,  or  making  apology  or  inquiry  as  to  my  forbearance,  they, 
too,  have  entered  into  the  penetralia  !  The  thermometer  by  this 
time  is  near  bursting.     As  he  passes  in  he  remarks  coolly: 

**  I  will  be  only  five  minutes.  Excellence!  "  I  know  the  Marshal 
Mirza  Mohsin  Khan  well.  He  is  a  good  Mahometati,  and  he 
has   many  relations  with  the  Porte  which  do  not  belong  to  the 


CAN  WE  DISPENSE  WITH  DIPLOMACY? 


493 


outside  world.  I  anticipate  his  long  conversation  with  the 
Minister. 

After  waiting  until  about  6  o'clock,  the  shades  of  evening 
begin  to  fall,  and  the  thermometer  with  them,  I  gaze  into  the 
big  black  eyes  of  the  dragoman,  give  one  sigh  for  my  far-off 
country,  cast  one  long  look  out  of  the  window  over  the  old  Sera- 
glio Point,  think  over  its  sanguinary  scenes,  and,  while  wiping 
my  anxious  brow,  I  indicate  to  that  patient  interpreter  that  if 
the  Ambassador  of  a  little,  miserable,  half-fed  dependency  of 
Russia,  known  as  the  Khanate  of  Persia,  may  take  precedence 
of  an  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  repre- 
senting a  nation  of  sixty  million  of  independent  freemen,  I  wanted 
to  go  home.  I  went.  I  made  a  solemn  resolution  that  if  I  ever 
entered  the  American  Congress  again,  I  would  move  to  strike  out 
the  grand  six-footed  words  by  which  our  Minister  is  accredited  to 
the  Porte,  and  insert  the  simple  word  ambassador,  which  means 
"one  sent."  It  is  the  open  sesame  to  the  jewels  and  gold  of 
Oriental  diplomacy. 

But  can  a  republic  have  an  ambassador?  That  is  the  moment- 
ous question.  It  was  settled  at  the  treaty  of  Paris  by  the  Holy 
Alliance,  and  some  other  Powers  confederating,  that  only  monar- 
chical governments  could  have  ambassadors.  Republics  were  then 
forbidden  to  have  other  than  Ministers  or  Envoys.  This  is  a 
solemn  treaty  among  the  Powers,  but  at  that  meeting  we  were 
not  present  and  not  consulted;  and  then,  too,  France  was  a  mon- 
archy. She  is  now  a  republic.  She  holds  on  to  the  ambassador, 
with  all  its  advantages.  Why  should  we  not  have  the  same?  If 
titles  have  any  value,  let  us  use  the  best  in  the  lexicon. 

There  is  room  for  reform  in  the  diplomatic  service.  In  fact, 
it  might  be  abolished  altogether  where  the  telegraph  can  play  its 
part  for  special  embassies  and  emergent  occasions.  What  a  sol- 
emn farce  it  is,  after  all,  for  an  American  Minister  to  pretend  to 
any  style  or  rank,  when  he  cannot  do  as  other  Ministers — con- 
clude any  treaty,  or  anything,  so  as  to  bind  any  one  !  The 
making  and  confirming  of  conventions  by  our  Constitution, 
depends  on  the  Executive  or  his  Secretary  of  State,  and  then 
absolutely  upon  the  Senate.  The  Minister  is  powerless  for  good, 
except  in  a  few  remote  countries,  like  China,  Japan  and  Turkey  ; 
and  in  certain  cases  like  the  very  ones  I  was  waiting  to  conclude 
when  the  other  Powers  stepped  before  me  into  the  agitated  pool 


494  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

at  the  Porte.  What  I  mean  is  this  :  that  for  over  ten  years  two 
treaties  accomplished  by  this  country  with  Turkey  have  been  sus- 
pended at  the  Porte.  They  had  been  made  by  Mr.  Minister  Boker, 
signed  and  already  confirmed  by  the  Senate.  Our  country  was 
anxious  for  them.  They  were  in  accord  with  the  American  doc- 
trines of  expatriation  and  naturalization.  They  were  a  triumph 
of  the  right  of  locomotion  and  the  liberalities  of  our  time.  By 
the  special  Irade  of  the  Sultan,  and  after  great  trouble,  vexation, 
patience  and  delay,  the' ex-Minister — who  writes  this  chapter — 
succeeded  in  securing,  by  the  Sultan's  favorable  interposition,  the 
acquiescence  of  the  Porte  with  these  treaties.  It  was  supposed  to 
be  a  finality.  Have  they  been  consummated  now  by  our  chief 
Executive  or  his  Secretary  of  State  ?  No  ;  and  inasmuch  as  they 
illustrate  a  line  of  honorable  progress  in  diplomacy,  secured  by  a 
subordinate  and  remote  official,  they  are  now  regarded — since 
their  acceptance  by  Turkey — as  of  little  or  no  moment !  We 
prize  little  that  which  we  obtain,  after  it  is  obtained,  or  which 
others  have  secured — even  though  secured  under  specific  instruc- 
tions. Of  this  hereafter,  and  in  another  forum  than  the  republic 
of  letters. 

If  this  be  the  end  of  such  labors  under  such  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, better  make  an  end  of  all  such  fruitless  and  salaried 
diplomatic  intercourse! 

The  world  will  not  always  be  moved  by  mere  titles.  Much 
may  be  expected  in  the  European  future  from  the  overturning  of 
these  pretensions.  It  may  be  remembered  that  in  1874  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  London,  perhaps  in  one  sense  the  most  comical  of  all 
the  empty  and  ostentatious  functionaries  known  to  civilization, 
issued  a  prescript  for  a  lunch  at  Guildhall.  The  foreign  Envoys 
below  the  rank  of  Ambassador  were  relegated  to  a  table  by  them- 
selves. They  left  the  hall  in  a  body  and  in  a  huff.  They  made 
a  protest  to  the  Foreign  Office.  The  Foreign  Office  had  no  juris- 
diction over  such  a  corporation.  The  Ministers  who  remember 
this  nonsensical  slight,  based  on  rank,  have  never  since  put  their 
foot  in  Guildhall,  and  the  stupid  corporation  has  never  yet  made 
an  apology. 

From  the  revelations  which  have  transpired  in  relation  to  the 
reception  of  General  Grant  at  the  court  of  Queen  Victoria,  and 
the  insulting  discriminations  at  that  court  against  the  American 
women  who  desire  presentation,  it  would  seem  but  a  very  small 


OTTOMAN  SIMPLICITY  OF  NAMES. 


495 


matter  to  be  •*  relegated"  to  a  lower  rank  when  bearing  such  a 
magnificent  title  as  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipo- 
tentiary, but  it  is  otherwise  when  such  illustrious  titular  person- 
ages as  Ambassadors  have  such  extraordinary  privileges.  Perhaps 
some  day  there  will  be  reformatory  movements  in  respect  to 
certain  grades  connected  with  the  public  service,  and  such  move- 
ments will  certainly  comprehend  merit  as  the  main  element  by 
which  facilities  and  courtesies  in  office  shall  be  accorded. 

This  is  aside  from  the  observations  pertinent  to  this  chapter. 

Is  the  Turk  an  arrogant  or  an  humble  personality  ?  Do  the 
Mahometan  faith  and  Eastern  institutions  tend  to  promote  ego- 
tism and  vanity  ?  These  queries,  if  truly  answered,  give  the  key 
to  unlock  many  of  the  historic,  individual  and  social  points  in 
Oriental  experience. 

The  Psalmist  refers  to  a  class  of  men  of  old  who  laid  out  towns 
which  they  named  after  themselves.  It  is  said  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment that  there  were  no  "  Smiths  "  in  all  Israel,  but  the  class  of 
which  the  anonymous  Smith  is  the  type  existed  then.  Smith  of 
Smithville,  and  Boggs  of  Boggsville,  and  their  congenitors,  like 
Shakespeare,  are  for  all  time.  But  it  is  one  of  the  anomalies  of 
the  East,  wherever  the  Koran  is  the  rule  of  conduct,  that  the 
names  of  people  are  of  the  simplest  kind.  In  fact,  in  the  Turk- 
ish empire,  and  in  its  highest  official  roster,  the  names  are  of  the 
simplest.  With  repetitious  inconvenience,  the  Mehmets,  Achmeds, 
Alis,  Suleimans,  Osmans,  Saids,  Abdullahs,  Emins,  Mustaphas, 
Selims,  Moussas  and  Tewfiks  have  such  "  damnable  iteration  "  as 
to  confuse  the  native  as  well  as  the  foreigner. 

The  lists  of  titles  in  the  books  of  heraldry  of  Western  nations 
have  little  to  compare  with  the  humble  nomenclature  of  the  East. 
The  religion  of  Mahomet  makes  all  equal  before  the  Supreme 
Spiritual  Allah.  In  fact,  when  an  Oriental,  by  the  partiality  of 
parents,  is  endowed  with  a  grandiose  name,  the  child,  when  of 
discreet  age,  assumes  the  virtue,  if  he  has  it  not,  of  reducing  his 
appellation. 

In  the  East,  or  in  Turkey,  all  names,  as  well  of  localities  as 
of  persons,  have  an  interior  and  sometimes  a  poetic  meaning. 
The  names  of  the  valleys  and  hills,  as  well  as  of  the  very  castles 
and  palaces  on  the  Bosporus,  signify  something  substantial.  Take 
the  names  along  the  Straits.  For  instance,  Dolma  Bagtch^,  the 
rarest  of  palaces,  signifies  a  ravme,  once  a  garden  and  now  filled 


496  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

up  !  Pilav  Kaia  means  a  rock  of  rice  ;  it  is  white.  Fil  Bournou 
means  the  nose  of  an  elephant ;  Buyukdere  is  a  great  valley  ; 
Yeni  Mahalle  is  a  new  quarter  ;  Madjar  Kalessi  is  a  Hungarian 
fort ;  Therapia  is  Greek  for  health  ;  Beycos  is  the  place  where 
Beys  did  congregate  ;  Yeni  Keui  is  a  new  village  ;  Kandilli,  an 
illuminated  spot  ;  Kouroutchesme,  a  dry  fountain  ;  Ortakeui  is 
literally  Middletown;  Bechiktash  is  a  stone  cradle;  and  Kadikeui 
is  the  village  of  the  judge.  When  there  was  a  bad  judge,  they  used 
to  send  him  there  out  of  the  way.  Every  town  or  stream,  as 
Emerson  said  of  Irish  scenery,  is  full  of  poetry,  and  the  names 
have  ideal  significance  ! 

It  may  strike  the  superficial  observer  of  Oriental  usages  as 
peculiar  that,  in  the  Ottoman  dominion,  there  are  no  titles  of 
nobility,  no  aristocracy  or  inherited  titles.  The  Sultan  himself 
is  no  more,  in  the  light  of  the  Koran,  than  his  meanest  serviteur  ! 
Another  democratic  element  here  comes  out  of  the  Oriental  land 
of  religion,  where  every  soul  is  equal  before  its  Maker.  It  is  this: 
that  every  Mussulman,  however  high  his  rank,  from  the  Sultan 
down  to  the  lowest  Dervish,  is  compelled  to  have  a  trade.  The 
grandfather  of  the  present  Sultan  was  a  tooth-pick  maker.  I  do 
not  know  to  what  trade  the  present  Sultan  was  apprenticed  ;  but 
certainly  he  is  a  good  machinist,  judging  by  the  skill  with  which 
he  investigates  all  the  contrivances  of  enginery  tendered  him  for 
the  protection  of  the  Bosporus  and  the  capital. 

The  boatman,  porter,  slave  or  groom  may  not  only  be  eligible 
to  be  called  Pasha,  but  there  is  no  exclusive  clique  or  caste  to 
render  them  ineligible  to  any  office  in  Turkey.  '*  The  butcher  of 
to-day,"  says  some  one,  "  may  be  the  generalissimo  of  to-morrow; 
and  the  barber  who  takes  an  Effendi  by  the  nose  on  Monday,  may 
on  Tuesday  be  called  by  the  throne  to  take  him  by  the  hand." 
The  lowest  slave  to-day  may  become  Grand  Vizier  to-morrow.  In 
fact,  many  of  the  present  Ministers  have  arisen  from  the  humblest 
walks  and  avocations  to  their  exalted  positions.  "  Our  poets  of 
the  East,"  said  Saladin  to  the  Lion-Hearted  King  Richard,  "say 
that  a  valiant  camel-driver  is  worthy  to  kiss  the  lip  of  a  fair  queen, 
when  a  cowardly  prince  is  not  worthy  to  salute  the  hem  of  her 
garment." 

Where  in  all  this  Oriental  wealth  of  imagery  and  incident  may 
one  find  an  humble  pearl  to  string  for  my  readers  ?  Well,  I  find 
it  in  a  little  verse  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.    I  call  it  the  humil- 


THE  ORIENT  PEARL  OF  HUMILITY. 


497 


ity  of  the  Oriental.      The  self-abnegation  of  "the  best  of  men 
that  e'er  wore  earth  about  him  "  was  that  of 

"  A  soft,  meek,  patient,  humble,  tranquil  spirit ; 
The  first  true  gentleman  that  ever  breathed." 

I  may  conclude,  therefore,  with  a  tribute  to  the  humility  of 
the  Oriental,  whence  came  this  gentlest  of  "gentle-men." 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

TURKISH    TIME — FASTING    AND    FESTAL    DAYS. 

The  time  of  day  and  night  in  Constantinople  needs  to  be 
heeded.  It  is  a  great  puzzle  to  those  who  are  not  initiated.  It 
requires  that  the  stranger  should  buy  a  journal  every  day,  in 
order  to  be  certain  of  the  time  when  the  steamers  and  the  cars 
leave.  The  hotels  are  compelled  to  keep  two  clocks.  Sometimes 
I  in  the  morning,  Turkish  time,  means  6  o'clock  incur  time;  and 
sometimes  it  means  9  o'clock.  Besides,  owing  to  the  numerous 
races  and  religions  in  the  Orient,  there  are  various  days  for  the 
Sabbath,  Christmas,  New  Year  and  Easter.  They  make  inex- 
tricable confusion,  while  the  old  time  of  the  Russians  and  Greeks 
still  more  confounds  us — as  to  the  fetes  and  Saints'  days.  It  is  a 
pity,  if  only  on  the  argument  ab  convenienti,  that  Saint  Gregory, 
with  his  calendar,  is  not  unanimously  acceptable  to  these  diverse 
peoples. 

There  are  many  periodical  returns  of  festive  or  religious 
days  among  the  Mahometans.  On  the  28th  of  September,  a.  d. 
622,  the  prophet  left  Mecca  for  Medina.  The  last  city  was  more 
faithful  to  him  than  Mecca.  From  this  event  comes  the  first 
day  and  year  of  the  Hegira.  Hegira  literally  means  "  emi- 
grate." It  is  from  an  Arab  word  called  Heudjret.  Seventeen 
years  after  the  Hegira,  Caliph  Omar,  brother-in-law  of  the 
Prophet,  felt  the  necessity  of  having  a  chronological  system,  and 
as  the  Arabs  were  learned  in  such  matters  at  that  time,  they 
called  a  grand  council  of  the  Mussulman  notables  and  arranged 
a  system.  By  common  accord,  the  era  of  two  hundred  millions 
of  people  upon  our  planet  begins  on  the  first  of  Muherrem,  or 
the  28th  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  622. 

The  Mussulman's  year  is  eleven  days  shorter  than  our  own. 
There  is  no  equivalent  for  the  months  of  his  calendar.  The 
month  which  corresponds  to  January  in  one  year  will,  sixteen 
years  aftePA^ard,  correspond  with  July. 

The  Turkish  month  takes  its  name  and  its  season  from  the 
moon,  and  the  Turkish  Ramazan  fast  runs  through  every  season 

498  • 


NEW  YEAR  IN  TURKEY— ITS  GIFTS. 


499 


in  the  course  of  thirty-three  years.  It  is  hard  on  the  poor  work- 
man and  boatman  in  summer;  but  they  stand  fast  by  their  prin- 
ciples, despite  thirst  and  fatigue.  When  Ramazan  ends,  do  these 
Faithful  rush  for  their  kebabs  dind  pila/s  ?  No:  they  have  their 
pipes  filled  and  the  match  in  hand.  Tobacco  has  a  prior  attach- 
ment to  food. 

This  Muherrem^  or  the  first  day  of  the  month  of  that  title,  is 
celebrated  by  all  Moslems,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  The 
Hegira,  which  occurred  in  a.  d.  1886,  was  the  thirteen  hundred 
and  fourth.  As  an  anniversary,  it  has  not  so  much  significance 
among  che  Arabs  as  among  the  Turks;  nor  has  it.had,  until  lately, 
so  much  among  the  Moslems  of  Turkey.  The  Turks  are  beginning 
to  keep  the  Western  custom  of  New  Year's  Day.  There  is  a  recep- 
tion at  the  palace  of  Yildiz.  It  begins  at  9  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, by  our  time;  when  the  functionaries — civil,  military  and 
religious — repair  to  the  palace  to  pay  their  homage  to  the  Sultan 
and  Caliph.  The  two  leading  chamberlains  receive  the  visitors 
for  His  Majesty.  Many  formalities  are  exchanged.  One  inter- 
esting custom  is  the  presentation  of  money  to  those  who  call. 
This  money  is  literally  a  New  Year's  gift — a  Monharremic. 
Presents  with  the  Turk  symbolize  happiness.  They  indicate 
a  wish  for  the  prosperity  of  the  recipient.  Last  year  there 
were  a  number  of  Turkish  gold  pieces  specially  minted  for  this 
purpose.  To  Osman  Pasha,  the  hero  of  Plevna,  was  confided  the 
function  of  distributing  these  coins  to  the  various  functionaries 
and  the  members  of  the  household.  They  are  considered  as 
talismans.  They  bring  blessings.  The  upper  ten  thousand  of  the 
Mahometans  follow  this  example  in  their  own  households.  So 
that  New  Year  is  really  a  day  of  gifts  as  well  as  of  felicitations. 
Are  the  Foreign  Ministers  included  in  this  precious  ceremony  ? 
I  regret  to  say,  only  so  far  as  the  Dragoman,  or  interpreter,  of 
the  Legation  is  concerned.  He  goes  to  the  palace  for  the  pur- 
pose of  presenting  the  congratulations  of  his  chief,  the  Minis- 
ter. I  wish  it  had  fallen  to  my  lot  to  bear  away  one  of  the 
small  purses.  They  make  a  pretty  souvenir — made  as  they  are 
of  white  tulle,  containing  some  of  the  fresh  golden  mint  drops, 
which  glisten  with  pleasant  associations.  But  I  have  a  more 
enduring  and  tasteful  souvenir  of  the  Sultan.  It  pleases  me  to 
remember  the  decoration  of  the  first  class  of  the  Order  of  the 
Medjidie,  made  a  still  more  precious  memorial,  not  only  by  the 


500  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

privilege  accorded  of  dedicating  this  volume  to  His  Majesty,  but 
by  the  fact  that,  after  I  had  resigned  my  post,  and  could  no  longer 
in  any  way,  except  as  a  good  friend  in  a  distant  country,  be 
accounted  in  any  relation  to  the  Sultan,  he  tendered  me  the  order 
established  to  honor  his  father,  Abdul  Medjid,  whom  I  saw  in  a.  d. 
185 1,  on  my  first  visit  to  the  capital.  Such  gifts  in  our  little  life, 
which  is  "  rounded  with  a  sleep,"  seem  like  dreams  of  fairie  land; 
so  remote  are  they  from  our  ordinary  experiences. 

In  order  to  usher  in  the  New  Year,  a  rocket  is  fired  from  the 
heights  of  Kandilli.  It  is  the  best  ground  of  vantage  for  observa- 
tion to  be  found  on  the  Straits.  The  rocket  is  a  signal  for  the  pre- 
cise moment  of  the  New  Year.  It  is  regulated,  as  it  is  said,  by  the 
southing  of  Sirius,  which  occurs  three-fourths  of  a  minute  before 
midnight.  Responsive  signals  in  the  shape  of  blue  and  Bengal 
fires  flash  back  from  the  hills  of  Hissar,  Bebek  and  Scutari.  Then 
the  city  knows  that  its  Mahometan  New  Year  has  begun. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  year  the  Gregorian  Armenians,  through 
their  Patriarch,  Monsieur  Vehabedian,  make  their  prayers  for  the 
preservation  of  the  precious  life  of  the  Sultan.  The  Greek  churches 
may  do  the  same.     The  English  do. 

The  Meolond  is  another  fete  day.  It  is  the  anniversary  of  the 
birth  of  the  Prophet.  To  announce  it,  a  sunset  gun  is  fired  at 
Tophane  and  from  the  men-of-war  in  the  Golden  Horn.  The  day 
begins  at  sunset.  The  mosques,  public  buildings  and  ships  are 
illuminated.  The  streets  are  filled  with  people.  It  is  celebrated 
with  pomp  at  the  palace.  An  assemblage  gathers  to  see  the 
Sultan  go  to  the  mosque.  Carriages  throng  the  palace  gates  with 
officers  of  high  rank;  some  in  simple  morning  dress  and  others 
ablaze  with  decorations.  Illustrious  strangers  appear  at  the 
Corps  de  Garde.  The  troops  are  there,  as  if  it  were  Salemlik.  The 
Sultan  appears  with  the  usual  company;  sometimes  on  horseback, 
sometimes  in  a  magnificent  phaeton  and  a  pair  of  white  barbs, 
which  he  drives.  The  ceremony  inside  of  the  mosque  is  accord- 
ing to  ancient  usage.  It  consists  of  special  prayers  for  the  festi- 
val, and  the  reading,  by  the  almoners  of  the  palace,  of  passages 
from  the  biography  of  the  Prophet.  Refreshments  are  offered, 
sweetmeats  being  the  prevailing  delicacy.  Pounds  and  pounds  of 
bonbons  are  distributed  among  the  spectators.  The  dignitaries  are 
admitted  to  the  Throne-room,  and  pay  their  respects  to  the  Sultan. 

The  loth  of  March,  old  style,  comes  around.     It  is  the  anni- 


OTHER  ANNIVERSARIES. 


501 


versary  of  the  birth  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia.  That  must  be 
celebrated,  also,  by  the  good  Slavs.  Constantinople  is  not  so 
bigoted  but  that  a  Te  Deum  is  possible  in  the  Russian  Embassy 
at  Pera.  At  this  ceremony  all  the  personnel  of  the  embassy 
and  all  the  Russian  boats  and  folks  which  are  in  and  around  the 
harbor  assist.  They  know  how  to  assist,  and  smg  too.  Then 
follows  the  customary  salutations  to  the  Russian  Minister  from 
the  Russian  colony.  Then  there  is  a  grand  dinner  in  the  even- 
ing, and  all  the  Slavs  secretly  rejoice  in  some  dim  future  connected 
with  her  orthodox  religion  in  St.  Sophia,  and  her  rule  in  the  olden 
home  of  its  prelates  and  rulers. 

The  Greek  Church  signalizes  its  felicity  upon  the  first  day  of 
the  year  in  the  old  style.  The  Russian  Embassy,  at  that  time, 
has  mass  said  and  the  Te  Deum  sung  in  their  chapel,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  their  embassy,  including  its  male  and  female,  heads.  They 
are  all  in  full  uniform.  The  Montenegrin  Minister  is  there,  along 
with  the  Servian,  and  many  Bulgarians  attend.  It  is  a  Slavonic 
occasion.  Delegates  from  the  Patriarchs  often  attend.  After 
the  religious  services  are  over,  the  Russian  Minister  receives  a 
deputation  from  the  colony  in  grand  state,  for  it  is  a  welcome  to 
the  Greek,  Russian  and  other  orthodox  residents  of  Constanti- 
nople. It  may  be  more.  It  is  meant  as  a  significant  sign  of  the 
coming  time  when  Mahometanism  and  the  Sultan  shall  give  place 
to  the  Czar  and  orthodoxy. 

Whenever  a  prince  becomes  of  age,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Prince 
Royal  of  Greece,  last  year,  or  a  birthday  of  some  princeling,  king 
or  emperor  happens,  there  is  much  made  of  it  in  the  Legations  and 
churches.  On  the  Greek  occasion,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Maria, 
the  Minister,  Monsieur  Coundouriotti,  and  the  members  of  the 
consular  and  diplomatic  bodies,  were  present,  and  a  reception  was 
held  afterward. 

Whenever  a  Minister  leaves  Constantinople  for  another  post, 
as  when  Count  Corti  left  for  England  or  Monsieur  Grouich  for 
Russia,  there  is  much  to-do  about  giving  him  a  gallant  send-off. 
My  impression  is  that  they  deserve  and  appreciate  the  good-will 
which  is  loth  to  part  with  them;  for  while  in  service  here  most  of 
their  life  seems  to  consist  in  the  perpetual  recognition  of  cour- 
tesies, which  they  return  with  ceaseless  and  exemplary  reiteration. 

The  Ramazan  and  Bairam  fetes  have  often  been  described. 
The  first  is  like  our  Lent;   the  second,  our  Easter.     The  Rama- 


502 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  m  TURKEY. 


zan  lasts  a  month  or  more.  It  is  during  this  fast,  on  the  twenty- 
fourth  night,  that  the  decrees  of  Mahometan  fate  are  taken 
from  the  preserved  table  by  God's  throne  and  settled  for  ever. 
They  are  turned  over  to  the  angels  to  be  executed.  As  it  was  on 
this  night  that  Mahomet  received  his  first  revelation,  it  is  called 
Kadir  gejesy  or  " night  of  power." 

During.  Ramazan  the  good  Moslem  neither  eats,  drinks  nor 
smokes  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  He  makes  up  for  it  after  sunset. 
Still,  he  is  not  physically  happy  by  day  or  night.  Hence  Bairam 
is  welcomed;  not  only  because  it  terminates  Ramazan,  but  it  is- 
the  beginning  of  joyance,  with  its  receptions  and  congratulations. 
Of  these  receptions,  that  of  the  Sultan  is  supreme  for  its  splendor. 
It  is  both  religious  and  civil,  and  all  the  dignitaries,  including  the 
diplomats,  are  on  hand  at  the  palace  to  partake  in  and  enjoy  the 
spectacle. 

The  Bairam  is  always  hailed  as  no  other  gala  season.  To  the 
faithful,  the  salvo  at  sunset  which  ushers  in  Bairam  is  a  cheerful 
sound.  Annoyances,  dyspepsia  and  wrongs  disappear.  All  that 
is  associated  with  hospitality,  fun,  frolic,  good  temper  and  con- 
gratulations are  ushered  in  with  noisy  exhilaration.  All  the  gay 
colors  and  rich  silks  and  satins  of  the  higher  class,  and  all  the 
bright  wardrobes  of  the  lower  class,  are  worn  in  scrupulous  neat- 
ness upon  the  streets.  The  Turk  then  puts  on  his  best  suit  of 
store  clothes.  The  muslin  of  his  turban  is  as  unflecked  as  polar 
snow.  The  fez  is  no  longer  soiled.  The  metropolis  is  dressed  in  hol- 
iday attire.  Music  pervades  the  streets,  plays  at  the  doors  of  the 
houses,  and  is  rewarded  with  gifts  of  charity,  not  in  money  alto- 
gether, but  in  articles  of  all  kinds,  so  that  the  musicians  go  home 
from  their  charavari  with  laden  baskets.  Neighbors  and  friends, 
make  the  Turkish  salute  and  salaam.  They  kiss  their  fingers  across 
squares.  From  early  morning  there  is  an  animated  scene  on  the 
water  and  in  the  streets.  The  vessels  are  decorated  from  boom  to 
truck.  Gilded  boats  have  their  finest  tapestries  and  are  manned 
by  their  best  oarsmen.  The  very  gulls  and  other  sea  birds  fly 
around  screaming  their  joy  at  the  vanishing  of  Ramazan  and  the 
advent  of  Bairam. 

But  the  grand  pageant  at  the  palace  is  not  now  what  it  was- 
before  the  burning  down  of  the  Seraglio.  Then  the  officers  of  the 
government,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  thronged  to  this  spot.  Stran- 
gers were  allowed,  as  they  are  to-day,  to  visit  the  grand  kiosk — the 


THE  JOYS  OF  BAIRAM.  5O3 

charming  pavilion  which  overlooks  the  lovely  scene.  In  the  olden 
time,  when  the  gates  of  the  Seraglio  were  opened,  it  was  a  gay 
throng  that  passed  through  the  court  and  lingered  under  the 
immense  plane-trees,  some  of  which  remain  to  this  day.  In  its 
general  features  the  Bairam  at  the  palace  now  is  the  same  as  that 
of  the  olden  time.  There  is  some  marked  change,  especially  in 
the  dress  of  the  people  and  officials.  The  Ministers  and  others 
are  clad  in  straight,  method istical  frock  coats.  Where  now  are 
the  flowing  robe,  the  big  round  turban  and  the  enormous 
breeches  ?  The  coats  are  covered  with  embroidery  and  decora- 
tions, but  the  tarbouch,  or  fez,  is  not  very  grandiose  and  impres- 
sive. No  one,  unless  he  has  seen  it,  can  imagine  the  splendid 
appearance  of  the  soldiers  and  officers  on  these  occasions.  Era- 
broidery,  in  which  the  Turks  excel,  silver  and  gold  embroidery, 
and  swords  damascened  and  gilded,  in  which  they  also  excel, 
give  their  tasteful  richness  to  the  scene.  The  housings  of 
the  horses,  the  very  playfulness  of  the  horses,  and  the  orna- 
mentation of 'the  carriages  indicate  that  the  joyful  time  has 
come.  On  these  occasions  we  have  an  idea  of  the  wealth  of 
"Ormus  and  of  Ind,"  in  all  their  gorgeousness  of  apparel  and 
luxury  of  power. 

At  first,  the  way  in  which  the  Ottoman  measures  his  time  seems 
odd  to  us.  His  day  commences  at  sunset,  and  the  hours  of  the 
day  swing  around  in  that  cycle  to  sunset  again.  But  the  most 
curious  performance  for  a  nation  which  has  drawn  so  much  from 
the  first  astronomers  of  Arabia,  is  that  by  which  the  recurrence  of 
the  festive  day  of  Bairam  is  regulated.  On  one  occasion  the  Rama- 
zan  lasted  only  twenty-eight  days.  This  was  not  because  the  moon 
failed  in  punctuality;  but  probably  the  Astronomer  Royal,  and 
not  the  moon,  was  at  fault,  or  grew  tired  of  fasting.  On  another 
occasion  the  feast  of  Ramazan  was  prolonged  for  thirty-one  days. 
This  was  owing  to  the  negligence  of  a  judge.  He  lost  his  head  for 
his  laches.  Is  it  not  somewhat  comical  that,  in  a  land  where 
there  is  ample  mathematical  and. astronomical  knowledge,  its  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  rulers  do  not  rely  upon  exact  science  for  the 
appearance  of  the  moon  or  the  setting  of  fasts  and  feasts  ?  There 
must  be  no  conjuring  with  Arabic  numerals  or  zodiacal  signs  in 
these  matters.  The  moon  must  be  seen  actually  and  optically  by 
some  one  or  more  persons,  and  these  must  be  credible  witnesses. 
They  must  give  their  testimony  that  they  saw  the  moon;  mark 


504 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


you,  one  moon  only.  If  they  saw  two  or  more  moons,  it  would  go 
to  their  credibility.  These  witnesses  must  present  themselves 
before  the  cadi  of  Constantinople,  and  prove  the  fact  circumstan- 
tially. The  cadi  is  sometimes  an  ecclesiastical  judge;  one  of  the 
canons,  as  it  were.  He  weighs  the  testimony  religiously.  If  the 
evidence  is  reliable  and  the  circumstances  of  the  case  are  satisfac- 
torily proven,  Bairam  is  fixed  for  the  next  morning  ;  very  early  in 
the  morning,  as  we  know  to  our  sorrow.  The  first  witness  of  the 
moon  receives  a  gift  of  ten  thousand  piastres  ($450).  A  piastre 
is  nearly  four  and  one-half  cents.  The  second  witness  receives  a 
gift  of  five  thousand  piastres,  and  the  third  of  twenty-five  hundred. 
The  witnesses  selected  to  catch  the  first  glimpse  of  the  moon  are 
special  functionaries  of  the  Sheik-ul-Islam.  There  is  great  com- 
petition among  them. 

The  witnesses  of  the  appearance  of  her  lunar  majesty  seek 
the  highest  point  in  the  neighborhood  from  which  the  moon  can 
first  be  seen  ;  and  from  which,  reckoning  very  closely,  they  can 
bring  the  authentic  news  to  the  cadi  in  the  city,  before  her  maj- 
esty announces  herself.  Last  year  Mount  Olympus  was  selected 
as  the  point  of  observation  of  some  of  the  witnesses.  Others 
selected  certain  Daghts,  in  Asia,  nearer  by,  but  not  so  high  as 
Mount  Olympus.  From  these  watch-towers  what  q  race  takes 
place  !  At  Modana,  small  steamers  are  kept  puffing,  to  bear  the 
news  from  Olympus  to  the  city.  No  pen  of  mine  can  describe  the 
trial  of  speed  which  these  witnesses  make  for  the  specific  reward. 
May  I  draw  on  the  pencil  of  fancy  ?  One  of  the  witnesses  is  on 
foot,  another  is  upon  a  donkey,  and  a  third  on  a  dromedary;  and 
a  fourth,  who  was  rather  slow  in  getting  up  the  mountain,  is  very 
fast  in  coming  down.  He  is  mounted  on  a  fleet  horse.  Others  in 
various  ways  seek  to  be  the  first  with  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy. 

The  Bairam  which  occurred  the  2d  of  July,  1886,  was  a  rare 
one  in  our  experience.  The  United  States  ship  of  war  Kearsarge 
was  in  the  Bosporus.  I  was,  in  all  hospitality,  bound  to  look 
after  her  officers.  The  Fourth  of  July  was  approaching.  The 
Commencements  of  the  American  College  and  the  American 
Female  Home  School  in  Scutari  were  also  on  hand;  all  within 
two  or  three  days,  and  Bairam  was  expected  every  moment!  We 
had  been  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  Bairam  the  year  before, 
owing  to  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities  in  Bulgaria;  therefore, 
we  were  more  than  usually  anxious  to  be  on  hand  at  the  Palace  of 


MOON-GAZERS  RUNNING   FOR  THEIR  REWARD  AT  BAIKAM. 


9>i 


506  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Dolma  Bagtche  when  ihe  artillery  should  announce  that  Bairam 
had  begun.  We  were  on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation.  Would  it  be 
the  I  St  of  July?  We  were  all  fearful  of  it.  In  that  case 
some  of  our  engagements  would  be  spoiled.  Is  it  to  be  the 
2d?  We  will  not  know  until  the  guns  are  fired  on  the  ist. 
We  are  at  Prinkipo,  fifteen  miles  from  Constantinople.  In  order 
to  reach  Dolma  Bagtche,  we  must  voyage  for  two  hours  and  a  half 
over  the  sea  of  Marmora  in  our  launch.  Would  we  have  good 
weather  and  a  smooth  sea  ?  Besides,  we  have  to  make  our  toilet. 
All  will  be  hurry  and  confusion.  Luckily,  the  night  before  we 
are  advised.  A  telegram  comes  from  the-  First  Chamberlain. 
Translated  it  reads  as  follows: 

"  To  His  Excellency  the  American  Minister,  Prinkipo  : 

"  In  order  to  be  present  at  the  ceremony  to-morrow,  you  will  come  in  the 
morning  to  the  Palace  of  Dolma  Bagtche,  between  one  and  half-past,  time  a  la 
Turque,  in  company  with  Madame  Cox  and  Monsieur  the  first  dragoman. 

"Munir." 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  time  is  half-past  one,  Turkish  time. 
That  means  six  or  seven  hours  after  our  time,  according  to 
native  reckoning  ;  so  that,  in  order  to  be  present  at  the  7  o'clock 
reception  at  Dolma  Bagtche,  we  have  to  sail  over  the  ancient 
Propontis  by  the  light  of  the  morning  stars. 

We  arrive  on  time.  We  meet  our  friends  at  the  Hotel  Royal. 
There  are  several  tourists  from  America  to  go  with  us.  Among^ 
them  is  a  bevy  of  "  sweet  girl  graduates  "  from  Chicago.  They 
are  alive  to  the  grand  occasion. 

From  the  palace  gates  at  Yildiz,  mounted  on  a  splendid  white 
Arab  steed,  the  Sultan  rides  forth !  He  rides  down  the  de- 
clivity from  the  heights  of  Yildiz  to  the  mosque  of  Dolma 
Bagtche  for  prayers.  Lines  of  soldiers  from  all  the  regiments 
guard  his  way.  The  procession  which  follows  him  is  brilliant. 
There  is  the  Sheik-ul-Islam,  the  spiritual  head  of  the  faith ! 
Behind  him  are  the  Grand  Vizier,  the  Ministers,  and  all  the  digni- 
taries of  the  household — military,  civil  and  domestic.  The  crowds 
on  the  streets  are  enormous.  Excitement  and  enthusiasm  fill  every 
avenue.  Is  this  Turkey  in  decrepitude  ?  The  fervor  of  the 
reception  accorded  to  the  Sultan  does  not  indicate  the  "  Sick  man.* 
The  weather  is  perfect.  The  morning  is  fresh.  The  scene  is 
charming.     The  Sultan  dismounts   from  his  charger  before  the 


THE  SULTAN'S  APPEARANCE. 


5'-'/ 


mosque  and  enters.  There  is  a  hush  in  all  the  streets.  The  air 
seems  full  of  the  solemnity  of  prayer.  At  the  end  of  a  half  hour 
the  bugles  sound.  The  artillery  thunders.  Its  echoes  resound 
from  hill  to  hill.  This  is  the  signal  that  His  Majesty  has  ended 
his  devotions  I     He  is  about  to  enter  the  palace  !     The  grand 


INTERIOR   STAIRCASE   OF   DOLMA-BAGTCHfe   PALACE. 


reception  ensues  !     This  is  the  jocund  occasion  of  the  year.    The 
vociferous  greetings  of  the  troops  and  people  are  wildly  joyous  ! 

The  deference  shown  to  this  Ruler  and  Father  of  the  Faith- 
ful is  beyond  comprehension  to  the  Western  mind.  We  are 
accustomed  to  regard  Turkey  as  almost  dying,  if  not  dead.     Far 


508  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

from  this  being  the  case  here,  all  is  active  loyalty  and  patriotic 
enthusiasm. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  a  description  of  this  palace  of  Dolma 
Bagtche.  The  eye  alone  can  appreciate  its  grandeur  and  beau- 
ties. Its  general  view  we  have  pictured  in  another  chapter.  Its 
gates,  like  fairy  handicraft,  "twined  in  many  a  freakish  knot," 
and  wrought  into  marble  under  the  spell  of  Oriental  Magi,  have 
also  been  presented.  Its  staircase  is  now  before  us.  It  is  only 
equaled  in  exquisite  and  beautiful  proportion  by  the  hall  of 
reception.     This  is  a  splendid  chamber. 

The  great  hall  is  prepared  for  the  ceremony  before  we  arrive. 
After  much  kindly  courtesy  on  the  part  of  the  Sultan's  aids,  who 
come  to  greet  us  at  the  gates  of  the  palace,  we  are  shown  to  the 
gallery  of  state.  It  overlooks  the  scene.  Rich  carpets  of  the 
Orient  are  laid  over  the  marble  pavements.  They  are  arranged 
to  indicate  the  stations  for  the  throng  of  officials  who  come  to 
pay  festive  homage.  There  is  a  throne  in  the  midst  of  the  cham- 
ber. It  is  covered  by  a  cloth  of  gold.  There  is  a  band  in  an 
alcove,  which  discourses  operatic  music.  There  is  a  buffet  near, 
where  those  who  arose  early  may  indulge  in  the  refreshments  of 
coffee  and  sandwiches.  At  7  o'clock  we  are  all  prepared  for 
the  entree.  There  is  a  hush  in  the  vast  chamber  !  From  one 
corner  of  the  hall  emerges  the  Sultan  !  The  cloth  of  gold  is 
removed  from  the  throne.  Three  young  princes  take  their  sta- 
tion near  His  Majesty  ;  two  are  his  nephews,  one  his  son.  The 
officers  of  the  household  are  aligned  near  his  person.  Thus 
ushered  by  the  grand  master  of  ceremonies,  this  autocrat  of  forty 
millions  of  people  is  enthroned.  The  band  plays  the  Imperial 
march.  The  assembled  multitude  shout,  "  Long  live  the  Sul- 
tan !  "  The  princely  salutation  is  taken  up  by  the  crowds  with- 
out. It  rolls  in  patriotic  outbursts  through  all  the  streets.  The 
hand-kissing  follows.  First  come  the  civil  functionaries,  from  the 
Grand  Vizier  down.  They  approach  on  His  Majesty's  right. 
They  make  the  regulation  salute.  It  is  a  most  singular  perform- 
ance. They  press  reverently  to  their  forehead  a  broad  scarf 
attached  to  the  right  arm  of  the  throne,  which  is  held  during  the 
ceremony  by  the  First  Chamberlain,  Then  they  withdraw  to 
their  places.  The  naval  and  military  officers  now  come  to  the 
front.  They  repeat  the  ceremony.  Then  the  religious  person- 
ages  with   great   grace   and   dignity  approach.     They  are  upon 


THE  SULTAN'S  RECEPTION  A  T  BAIRAM. 


509 


another  line  of  carpets.  They  touch  with  lip  and  forehead  the 
Sultan's  vestment.  This  is  their  especial  privilege.  It  is  sacred. 
One  is  utterly  dazed  at  the  rich,  ornate  confusion  of  color  and 
costume  which  belong  to  this  gracious  Oriental  proceeding. 

We  lean  over  the  balcony  to  see  what  comes  next.  An  aide  is 
near.     We  whisper  to  him  : 

"Who  is  that,"  we  inquire,  "  in  white  robes,  followed  by  offi- 
cers in  green?  " 

"  It  is  the  Sheik-ul-Islam,"  responds  the  aide.  '•  Those  in  green 
are  the  Cazaskiers." 

"What !     Are  the  orders  known  by  their  colors  ?  " 

"  Yes.  Note  two  other  orders  ;  one  in  green,  one  in  violet — 
and  still  another  in  dark  blue.  The  last  are  the  Stamboul 
priesthood." 

The  Sheik-ul-Islam  is  the  most  conspicuous  of  those  who 
attend  upon  this  ceremony.  He  is  dressed  in  his  white  caftan  ; 
his  turban  of  white  is  crossed  in  front  by  a  band  of  gold.  He  is 
next  to  the  Sultan  in  religious  rank,  and  when  he  undertakes  to 
make  the  salutation  which  is  usual,  the  Sultan  prevents  the  per- 
formance of  the  homage  and  meets  him  half  way.  All  this  goes 
on  while  the  band  plays  airs  from  some  delightful  opera  and  the 
cannon  thunders  from  fort  to"  fort,  and  amid  shouts  of  "  Long  live 
the  Sultan  ! " 

How  long  this  ceremony  occupies,  it  is  impossible  to  recall  ; 
perhaps  two  hours.  The  music  stops.  The  fifth  act  is  ended — 
without  a  tragedy.  The  members  of  the  Imperial  family  retire  to 
the  private  room  of  the  palace.  There  they  receive  the  remain- 
der of  their  Bairam  felicitations. 

We  are  particular  in  describing  this  ceremony,  because  it  has 
in  it  much  of  Oriental  style.  It  is  redolent  of  the  days  of  the 
early  Sultans  and  Caliphs,  who  received  at  Bairam,  in  the  Seraglio, 
before  its  conflagration.  Besides,  at  this  ceremony  we  see  the 
high  officials  of  the  religious,  civil,  military  and  naval  establish- 
ments. It  does  not  entirely  exclude  the  Foreign  Ministers.  We 
are  permitted  to  pay  our  special  respects  after  the -ceremony, 
through  our  dragomans,  at  the  palace  of  Yildiz. 

There  are  two  Bairam  seasons.  Seventy  days  after  the  one 
just  described  is  the  festival  of  Kurban  Bairam.  It  is  the 
feast  of  sacrifice.  It  is  doubtless  taken  from  the  Jewish  system. 
It  is  a  sacrifice  of  sheep  and  oxen,  and   lasts  four  days.     Artll- 


5  TO  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

lery  announces  the  beginning  of  this  latter  fete  at  5  in  the 
morning.  At  once  the  true  Mussulman  leaves  his  bed  and  begins 
the  sacrifice.  In  every  house  at  least  one  sheep  must  be  sacrificed. 
It  is  a  family  offering.  The  meat  is  distributed  to  the  poor,  and 
a  portion  kept  for  the  family.  At  the  palace  this  sacrifice  is  on 
a  grand  scale.  In  the  cemeteries  the  priests  are  busy  making 
their  sacrificial  offerings  upon  the  graves  of  departed  relatives.  A 
ram  is  killed  for  evety  member  of  the  Imperial  family  at  the  pal- 
ace. Where  do  these  animals  come  from  ?  At  the  beginnmg  of 
this  Bairam,  you  see  men  and  boys  leading  them  around  the 
streets  gaily  decorated.  They  are  for  sale.  Sometimes,  if  the 
ram,  by  his  good  keeping,  has  grown  beyond  ordinary  size,  you 
will  see  a  hamal,  or  slave,  carrying  him  about  the  streets  for  the 
owner.  Some  of  these  sheep  are  of  enormous  bulk;  the  tail  is  no 
exception  to  the  exaggeration.  The  rams  sacrificed  at  the  palace 
number  about  two  hundred. 

Before  they  are  displayed  or  sacrificed,  they  are  led  into  a 
Turkish  bath,  where  they  are  soaked  and  washed.  The  wool 
being  thus  made  immaculate,  is  carefully  combed.  Their  horns 
are  covered  with  thin  golden  leaves  and  adorned  with  artificial 
flowers  and  ribbons  of  gay  hue.  A  mirror  is  attached  to  their 
foreheads,  which  are  tinted  with  henna.  This  toilet  of  the  royal 
rams  is  made  in  the  park  of  the  old  Seraglio,  after  which  they  are 
conducted  to  Yildiz.  It  is  quite  a  procession.  Each  ram  is  led 
by  two  men.  The  men  wear  an  ancient  costume.  It  is  a  long 
coat  of  green,  adorned  with  gold  lace.  The  heads  of  the  men 
are  shaven  ;  they  wear  a  long  green  hat. 

Along  with  this  sacrificial  ceremony  there  is  a  custom  called 
the  Bairam  Namazi.  This  year  it  is  performed  at  the  mosque 
of  Bechiktash,  with  much  military  and  civic  demonstration.  The 
Sultan  rides  a  magnificent  white  palfrey.  It  is  from  Bagdad.  He 
is  accompanied  and  followed  by  the  court  marshals  and  the  high 
functionaries,  civil  and  military;  Osm?n  Pasha,  bemg  Grand  Mar- 
shal of  the  court,  is  on  the  right  ;  and  Namyk  Pasha,  the  Senior 
Marshal  of  the  court,  on  the  left.  As  the  Sultan  approaches  each 
regiment  in  turn,  the  troops  cheer  and  each  band  plays  the  Impe- 
rial March.  When  he  reaches  the  mosque  he  is  received  with  tre- 
mendous cheers.  The  devotions  last  a  short  time.  The  outsider 
cannot  see  ;  he  only  hears  the  melodious  chantmg  of  the  Arab 
Ulemas  from  Mecca.     When  the  prayers  are  over,  the  troops  form 


CONGRATULATIONS  AT  THE  B AIR  AM  OF  j886. 


511 


a  line  on  either  side  to  the  Dolma  Bagtch^  palace.  Then  are 
brought  out  the  magnificent  horses  of  the  Imperial  stud,  harnessed 
and  caparisoned.  The  saddle-cloths  are  of  violet  velvet,  covered 
with  rich  embroideries  of  gold  and  pearls.  They  are  distinguish- 
able even  amidst  the  decorations  and  lace  of  the  Pashas,  who 
mount  the  horses  and  follow  His  Majesty.  The  Sultan's  suite  is 
composed  not  only  of  the  high  dignitaries  of  his  court,  but  all  the 
superior  officers  of  the  realm  on  foot.  Then  the  court  carriages 
follow,  surrounded  by  eunuchs  on  foot  in  their  uniforms  ;  but 
their  vigilance  is  not  so  keen  as  to  prevent  a  bright  eye  and  beau- 
teous form,  arrayed  in  diamonds  and  other  jewelry,  from  making 
itself  seen  in  the  carriage  and  felt  outside  ;  nor  can  the  black 
guard  prevent  the  eyes  of  the  odalisque  from  shining  like  stars 
in  a  heaven  of  beauty. 

Arriving  at  the  palace,  four  rams  are  sacrificed  at  once. 
The  Great  Almoner  recites  prayers  for  the  preservation  of  His 
Majesty.  Then  follows  the  ceremony  inside  the  palace,  which  is  not 
unlike  that  of  the  other  Bairam,  of  which  we  had  personal  observa- 
tion. Considering  the  condition  of  the  Turkish  realm  at  the 
last  preceding  Bairam;  observing  the  intense  loyalty  now  dis- 
played on  both  these  occasions,  in  this  year  of  grace,  1886;  and 
knowing  the  amiable  and  moderate  qualities  of  the  Sultan — the 
present  is  truly  a  season  for  gladness.  No  doubt  the  dignitaries 
of  state  so  consider  it.  Turkey  survives  the  dangers  which  the 
agitation  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula  engenders.  One  reason  why 
the  ministry  was  dismissed  at  the  Bairam  season  of  1885  was, 
that  they  advised  instant  war  to  suppress  the  insurrection  in 
East  Roumelia.  The  Sultan  was  wiser  than  his  counselors.  He 
called  in  a  new  ministry,  and  by  self-restraint  sheathed  the 
sword  that  was  half-drawn.  His  political  foresight  discerns  that 
a  war  in  Bulgaria  about  East  Roumelia  would  involve  Servia, 
Greece,  Macedonia  and  Crete.  Such  a  belligerency  woilld  involve 
Europe.  The  Powers  observe  the  sagacity  of  this  forbearance  on 
the  part  of  the  Sultan.  They  recognize  that  in  his  wisdom  lies 
the  strength  of  the  Ottoman  power.  Therefore,  this  last  Bairam 
is  a  time  of  national  and  universal  rejoicing,  not  only  for  the  Sul- 
tan and  his  Ottomans,  but  for  those  who  love  peace  and  forbear- 
ance rather  than  war  and  passion.  Long  may  this  wise  Sultan 
remain  as  father  of  the  Faithful !  Long  may  he  enjoy  the  recur- 
rence of  the  feasts  of  Bairam! 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

THE  HAREM — INNOVATIONS,    DRESSES   AND   INCIDENTS. 

Those  who  say  that  Constantinople  is  permanent,  and  likely 
to  remain  as  she  was  a  half  century  ago,  are  not  competent  jud- 
ges, unless  they  have  seen  the  city  inside  and  outside  within  this 
period. 

It  is  thirty-five  years  since  I  saw  the  city  first.  Five  years  after 
that  time  the  Crimean  War  came.  It  changed  nearly  every  phase 
of  life.  A  different  condition  of  men  and  things  existed  before 
that  war.  For  example:  never  was  there  such  a  cascade  of  rough- 
hewn  stones  as  the  street,  which  yet  remains,  known  as  Step 
Street.  It  was  the  main  thoroughfare  between  Galata  and  Pera. 
Now  a  railway  brings  you  and  your  merchandise  up  the  high  hill 
of  Pera  and  back  to  its  foot  at  Galata.  The  old  walls,  towers 
and  the  moat  have  been  modernized.  The  moat  is  a  vegetable 
garden.  What  with  the  aid  of  conflagrations  and  reasonable 
police,  the  streets  of  Pera,  which  were  so  narrow  that  you  could 
almost  shake  hands  with  your  neighbor  across  them,  are  a  mem- 
ory. In  1 85 1  they  were  unlighted.  They  had  no  names  or  num- 
bers. Now  it  is  different,  at  least  m  Pera.  Now  there  is  a  local 
post.  I  will  not  avouch  for  its  promptitude.  They  have  a  tele- 
graph, and  it  is  well  administered.  It  is  under  the  government 
control.  They  have  railway  lines  and  a  tramway.  Here  and 
there,  even  in  old  Stamboul,  may  be  seen  some  stray  cabs,  called 
talikas.  The  dogs  still  remain  in  all  their  howling  perversity, 
and  so  do  the  dervishes.  In  1851  it  was  dangerous  to  go  through 
the  streets  of  Pera  and  Galata  after  sundown.  Practical  improve- 
ments have  certainly  grown  apace. 

Since  leaving  Constantinople,  the  rumors  have  been  rife  of 
various  innovations,  not  merely  in  the  world  of  Islam,  but  inside 
the  harem  and  seraglio.  It  is  said  that  the  ladies  of  the  harem 
have  heretofore  occupied  particular  apartments,  which  have  only 
been  known  to  the  Sultan  and  the  Chief  of  the  Eunuchs.  The  inno- 


CHANGES  AND  REFORMS  IN  THE  HAREM. 


513 


vation  consists  in  sharing  this  knowledge  with  the  physicians 
attached  to  the  household.  Certainly,  if  this  be  the  case,  no  more 
worthy  selection  could  be  made  than  that  of  Doctor  Mavroyeni, 
who  is  the  chief  physician.  He  is  the  father  of  the  present  Turk- 
ish Minister  to  the  United  States.  It  is  said  that  each  Sultana 
now  enjoys  the  luxury  of  a  visiting  card,  which  she  affixes  on  the 
outer  door  of  her  apartment.     Where  there  is  much  visiting  to 


A  TURKISH  LADY  OF   1851. 


and  from  room  to  room,  doubtless  many   facilities   are  given  by 
this  new  mode  of  communication. 

The  story  is  told  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  women  of 
the  seraglio  have  been  recently  vaccinated.  This  was  done  in 
a  large  hall,  under  the  superintendence  of  four  eunuchs,  by  an 
Italian  surgeon — but  not  without  some  innovation  ?  The  sur- 
geon is  stationed  in  front  of  a  huge  screen,  behmd  which  are 
the  women.     A  hole  is  made  in  the  screen,  large  enough  to  allow 


514 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


the  female  arm  to  pass  through.  The  surgeon  does  not  see  the 
face  of  his  fair  patient.  But  in  order  to  avoid  the  possibility  of 
seemg  it,  two  of  the  eunuchs  stand  over  the  operator,  and  the 
instant  the  operation  is  concluded,  cover  his  face  with  a  shawl. 

Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  and  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  it,  there 
has  been  much  change  in  the  sanitary  regulations  of  the  harem. 
Hereby  hangs  a  little  story,  whose  locality  is  farther  east  than 
Stamboul.  It  is  told  of  a  young  Oriental  houri.  She  is  anxious 
to  be  cured  of  some  temporary  illness,  but  has  no  faith  in  the 
native  physician.  She  wants  a  European  doctor.  She  arranges 
cunningly  to  be  rumored  for  a  time  as  a  famous  male  saint,  one 
who  had  accomplished  the  great  pilgrimage  to  Mecca.  She  dresses 
herself  in  saintly  robes.  She  is  quite  reserved  and  learned.  Had 
not  the  saint  achieved  a  great  reputation  t  In  fact,  she  is  one  of 
the  household,  if  not  a  wife,  of  the  saint  she  represents.  She 
plays  a  shrewd  trick;  for  when  the  doctor,  who  was  ostensibly 
summoned  by  this  saint,  arrives  at  the  harem,  he  is  led,  not 
without  tremor,  by  the  eunuch  through  many  an  empty  room 
without  carpet  or  seat.  He  wearies  with  his  long  trudging 
through  the  many  seatless  chambers.  At  last  he  reposes 
upon  a  raised  window-ledge.  The  guide  disappears.  There  is 
a  dead  silence,  only  broken  by  the  hum  of  a  wasp  or  a  blue- 
bottle. Time  hangs  heavily;  the  hours  pass;  the  doctor  becomes 
impatient.  Thinking  that  he  is  imprisoned,  or  that  he  is  played 
upon,  he  shouts  at  the  full  pitch  of  his  voice.  The  servant 
returns  hurriedly;  his  manner  is  changed.  He  conducts  the  doc- 
tor to  the  holy  man's  apartment.  The  saint  remains  reserved. 
He  does  not  rise  on  the  doctor's  entrance,  nor  offer  the  doctor 
a  cushion.  The  doctor  has  "  to  take  the  floor  in  his  own  right," 
as  they  say  in  Congress.  Then  the  holy  man  pretends  to  regret 
the  want  of  civility;  it  had  not  been  intentional.  The  doctor  sees 
his  patient — that  is,  a  piece  of  her,  for  it  was  the  odalisque.  She 
thrusts  a  plump  arm  from  out  of  a  large  veil,  and  takes  care  that 
naught  but  her  lips  should  be  visible;  she  puts  out  her  tongue; 
the  prescription  is  written  on  a  cigarette  paper,  and  the  doctor 
retires  amidst  roars  of  laughter  from  a  crowd  of  veiled  women, 
who  form  the  saint's  seraglio. 

There  is  much  objurgation  from  the  old  Turk  against  the 
changes  that  are  going  on  within  the  harem.  The  innovations 
have  begun,  not  merely  in  the  dress  of  its  inmates,  but  in  the  very 


JROOM  FOR  MORE  REFORM. 


.515 


furniture.  The  divan  is  being  crowded  out  by  chairs.  Girandolas 
of  Austrian  manufacture,  portieres  and  curtains  of  rich  crimson 
silk  velvet,  with  borderings  of  gold,  beautiful  beyond  expression, 
still  remain  to  give  their  gorgeous  orientalism. 

It  is  a  pity  that  the  rascals  in  Anatolia  should  have  been 
allowed  to  drive  a  prosperous  trade  by  forging  ancient  coins;  for 
this  counterfeiting  has  detracted  from  the  handsome  bracelets 
and  necklaces  which  Turkish  ladies  wear,  and  which  are  composed 
of  these  ancient  golden  coins.  As  they  were  once  very  scarce, 
they  were  highly  appreciated  as  a  superb  style  of  ornament 
Their  disuse  is  an  innovation,  but  is  it  reform  ? 

What  is  the  boy  selling  yonder?  Let  us  ask.  Orris  root  for 
tooth-brushes  and  tooth-picks.  His  business  is  brisk,  for  the 
tooth-brush,  in  spite  of  the  prejudice  of  the  Koran  against  the 
hair  of  the  hog,  has  become  a  part  of  the  furniture  of  the  harem. 
Is  this  also  a  sign  of  reform  ?  A  little!  Even  the  henna  no  longer 
stains  the  fingers  of  the  houri.  That  custom,  at  least,  has  been 
in  great  part  abolished.     Is  not  this  reform  ? 

I  sometimes  wish  that  Spanish  almonds  had  never  been 
invented  or  imported  into  Turkey.  The  beautiful  Turkish  woman, 
whether  the  effeminate  Circassian  or  the  brilliant  Georgian,  often- 
times, previous  to  the  great  event  of  her  life,  plucks  out  every  hair 
of  her  eyebrows;  then  she  replaces  them  by  two  stripes  of  black 
dye  from  the  burnt  almond.  These  stripes  are  raised  about  an 
inch  high  upon  the  forehead.  Does  this  fashion  indicate  a  Tartar 
or  Turkish  relation  with  the  Chinese  ?  It  used  to  be  more  of  a 
habit  with  the  Turkish  women,  on  great  occasions,  than  it  is  at 
present.  If  this  custom  is  a  matter  of  coquetry,  do  they  not  mis- 
take human  nature  ?  In  many  ways  they  exercise  good  taste  in 
dressing,  but  this  fantastic  eyebrow  is  atrocious.  Sometimes 
they  paint  the  eyebrows  to  meet  across  the  nose;  sometimes  they 
raise  them  at  the  outer  point  to  the  temple.  These  caprices  of 
the  harem  are  barbaric.  They  are  falling  into  deserved  desue- 
tude. Here  is  room  for — reform.  Indeed,  although  there  is  much 
the  same  general  costume  among  the  Turkish  women  now  as  in 
1 85 1,  there  are  differences,  apparent  even  m  the  sketches  here 
presented. 

I  have  the  best  authority — no  less  than  that  of  Mrs.  Walker,  an 
artist  who  has  been  frequently  called  upon  to  paint  portraits  of 
princesses  and  other  ladies  of  quality  m  the  harems — that  time  has 


5i6. 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


written  wonderful  changes  in  its  inner  life.  It  is  no  longer  the 
lustreless  and  lazy  Ottoman  life,  where  education  and  employ- 
ment are  forbidden,  and  where  nothing  is  to  be  heard  except  the 
tinkle  of  the  zebec,  the  notes  of  the  fiddle,  the  rattle  of  the  tam- 
bourine, and  a  chorus  of  female  voices,  which  require  immense  dis- 
tances to  mellow  into  harmony. 

The  police  orders  are  frequent  as  to  the  rearrangement  of  the 


A   TURKISH   LADY  OF    1887. 


costume,  as  if  the  Turkish  women  were  endeavoring  to  assimilate 
their  habits  and  difficulties  to  the  freer  life  of  the  Frank.  Still, 
there  is  great  reserve  as  to  the  harem,  and  the  recent  innovations 
by  which  European  doctors  have  been  called  in  to  vaccinate  and 
otherwise  care  for  the  physical  well-being  of  its  inmates  is  an 
accomplished  and  significant  fact.  There  is,  therefore,  great 
improvement  in  the  care  of  women  and  children  under  the  new 
conditions  of  medical  progress. 


THE  DRESSES  OF  THE  HAREM. 


517 


It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  have  the  entree  to  the  inner  life  of 
Turkey.  Sometimes  necessity  is  the  password,  even  to  the  doors 
of  the  seraglio.  Sometimes  the  vanity  of  its  inmates  touches  the 
magic  spring.  Mrs.  Walker,  to  whom  I  refer,  is  the  author  of  an 
interesting  book  on  Eastern  life  and  scenery.  She  entered  the  harem 
because  she  was  an  artist  and  a  teacher,  and  the  inmates  desired 
her  to  paint  the  portrait  of  a  Sultana  !  The  account  of  her  pre- 
liminary and  other  visits  and  of  her  attempt  to  tame  some  of  the 
inmates,  and  especially  of  the  Sultana's  contumacy  about  the  por- 
trait, are  humorous.  It  seems  that  the  Sultana  was  determined 
to  be  painted  in  the  newest  style,  and  not  in  the  old  Ottoman 
costume.  Hence  many  tears  and  groans  from  the  artist,  for  the 
Sultana  had  to  be  gratified.  The  innovations  which  are  beginning 
to  make  their  way  into  the  Turkish  harem,  especially  in  matters 
of  dress,  seem  to  have  made  it  impossible  for  the  artist  to  secure 
either  a  natural  position  or  the  ordinary  habit  and  habitudes  of  the 
regal  lady.  The  artist  was  compelled,  therefore,  to  contemplate 
the  conclusion  of  her  work  without  approving  it,  but  which 
seemed  to  content  her  model. 

Before  leaving  Constantinople  my  wife  had  presented  to  her 
a  couple  of  large  French  dolls  dressed  up  in  the  latest  style  of  the 
harem.  They  represent  the  wardrobe  of  a  lady  of  rank,  with  her 
antarys,  schalvas,  and  feridjies^  slippers,  boots,  and  clothes, 
gloves,  head-dress,  and  all.  The  material  is  rich  in  color  and 
costly,  and  is  made  to  harmonize  inside  of  the  harem  with  the 
furniture.  The  very  dust-pans  of  the  seraglio  are  generally  of 
solid  silver,  the  coffee  zarfs,  chibouque  rings,  and  even  the  bathing 
wooden  clogs  are  incrusted  with  jewelry.  But  my  inartistic  pen 
is  not  equal  to  the  task  of  a  man-milliner.  I  delegate  the  descrip- 
tion of  these  dresses,  for  the  benefit  of  my  lady  readers,  to  one  of 
their  sex.     I  present  my  wife's  account : 

♦*  The  costume  of  the  Turkish  lady  for  the  street  is  very 
simple.  The  feriiijie  is  a  large  overwrap,  much  like  our  ulster  or 
waterproof.  It  has  the  additional  large  cape,  which  would  cor- 
respond to  our  dolman,  worn  over  the  ulster  or  feridjUy  forming 
in  part  the  sleeves,  though  often  the  sleeves  are  made  separately 
— full  and  flowmg.  The  garment  is  generally  made  of  rich  silks, 
very  long.  It  fastens  up  all  the  way  in  front,  concealing  entirely 
the  in-door  costume  beneath.  The  dark  shades  of  silk  are  pre- 
ferred for  ordinary  wear,  while  the  brightest  colors  are  none  too 


5l8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


TOILETTE  FOR  INDOORS  AND  OUT. 


519 


gay  lor  gala  days.  The  jaj/z/wa^  is  the  head-covering  It  is  of 
thin  white  mull  and  covers  the  head  entirely.  A  band  or  fold 
passes  across  the  forehead,  just  above  the  eyes.  Another  and 
similar  band  passes  just  below  the  eyes,  both  being  fastened  at 
the  back  with  pins  and  falling  beneath  the  fcridjie.  Thus  only 
the  eyes  are  seen,  save  now  and  then,  when  the  features  are  dimly 
revealed  if  the  veil  be  not  too  thick.  When  this  revelation  becomes 
too  common,  an  edict  is  issued  from  the  palace  to  correct  the 
custom,  and  thick  veils  are  again  commanded.  The  gay  silk  para- 
sol completes  this  out-door  costume. 

"  As  to  the  house  costume,  it  has  greatly  changed  since  the 
earlier  days.  Now  we  hear  it  is  the  height  of  a  Turkish  lady's 
ambition  to  wear  a  French  costume — I  mean  the  ambition  of 
those  who  are  called  the  more  advanced  in  their  midst.  Of 
the  old  style,  the  full  trousers  were  always  worn.  They  are 
known  as  schalvas,  of  yellow  silk.  They  were  fastened  by  a 
sash,  and  embroidered  elegantly.  Over  these  were  worn  long 
flowing  robes,  cut  in  three  separate  trains,  each  sweeping  about  a 
half  yard  on  the  floor.  The  train  at  the  back  is  longer  and  more 
flowing  than  the  two  in  front.  The  stuffs  of  which  they  are  made 
were  Oriental,  with  many  woven  threads  of  silver  or  gold.  A  fancy 
head-dress,  and  diamonds  on  neck  and  hair,  complete  the  attire. 
In  later  times  the  front  trains  gave  way  to  shortened  robes,  until 
now  they  are  almost  abandoned.  Of  course,  when  the  street  wrap 
was  assumed,  these  trains  were  pinned  up  and  entirely  hidden 
beneath  \h&feriJJic.  On  festive  days  the  banks  of  the  "Sweet 
Waters"  are  lined  with  bevies  of  Turkish  ladies,  reclining  on 
their  Turkish  rugs,  in  groups  or  by  families.  Now  and  then 
they  vary  this  rest  by  a  promenade  along  the  stream,  and  then  it 
is  observed  that  they  are  quite  as  fond  as  their  European  sisters 
of  the  silk-embroidered  hose  and  slipper  which  adorn  the  feet  of 
civilized  communities.  Only  among  the  latter  they  are  reserved 
for  in-door  wear  and  not  for  out-door  promenade.  The  little 
stream  is  thronged  with  the  picturesque  caiques,  with  their  gilded 
prows  and  crimson  velvet  draperies.  The  children  are  not  so 
romantic-looking.  They  resemble  rather,  in  their  quaint  robes, 
little  old  men  and  women,  owing  to  the  style  of  making  their  gar- 
ments touch  the  ankles, 

"  Sweets,  ices,  lemonade,  and  cold  water  are  handed  around  by 
the  carriers  on  these  crowded  festal  days.    It  is  thought  that  this 


520  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

mode  of  celebrating  a  festal  day  cannot  be  wildly  exciting  ;  yet 
there  are  slanderous  tongues  that  assert  that  there  is  much  mis- 
chief done  with  the  dark  eyes  of  these  houris  coquetting  with  the 
gay  and  dashing  "  uniforms  "  which  fill  the  promenade." 
******* 

The  afternoon  drive  to  the  "Sweet  Waters"  is,  after  all,  a 
part  of  the  seclusion  of  the  Turkish  women.  They  are  in  the 
outer  world,  but  not  of  it,  except  in  fancy.  Observe  that  elegant 
turnout  at  the  door  of  the  haremlik!  It  is  a  pretty  brougham. 
The  horses  are  from  the  steppes  of  Russia  or  the  prairies  of 
Hungary,  They  are  neat,  long-tailed,  spirited  animals.  Two 
females  appear,  and  are  carefully  helped  by  the  slave  into  the 
vehicle.  The  coachman  does  not  get  a  glimpse  of  the  ladies. 
They  are  screened  with  their  sunshades.  The  brown  satin  cush- 
ions receive  their  forms;  the  hand-mirror  is  brightened,  and  to  its 
reflection  they  commit  their  glances.  They  are  then  ready  for 
their  confectionery  and  their  drive.  Their  lips  are  of  carnation; 
their  faces  are  of  a  rich,  creamy  delicacy.  Whether  on  the  Gezireh 
drive  at  Cairo,  oh  the  Bois  at  Paris,  or  the  Row  in  London,  in  the 
Park  at  New  York,  or  on  the  way  to  the  "  Sweet  Waters "  of 
Europe,  these  fair  ones  are  not  disposed  to  be  too  much  concealed 
from  the  world. 

Only  a  few  of  the  rich  garments  which  fill  the  wardrobes  of  the 
harem  are  ever  worn.  They  are  too  heavy.  They  are  only  for 
display.  They  are  presents  from  the  head  of  the  house,  and 
bestowed  with  great  ceremony.  As  in  all  the  harems,  so  even  in 
the  seraglio,  the  visitors,  whom  the  master  of  the  house  does  not 
see  unveiled,  drive  him  from  the  penetralia  of  his  home  to  seek  a 
refuge  in  the  Salemlik.  The  porter  never  allows  ingress  without 
some  testimonial.  This  requires  the  countersign  of  the  black 
aga,  who  keeps  the  key  to  the  cage.  But  why  call  it  a  cage  ? 
Nothing  can  be  more  delightful,  especially  in  warm  summer 
weather,  than  a  konak  on  the  hills  or  a  palace  on  the  shores  of  the 
Straits.  At  midday  the  inmates  take  their  siesta.  There  is  a 
lullaby  in  the  laughing  ripple  of  the  current  almost  at  their  feet. 
There  is  an  occasional  measured  plash  of  passing  boats;  the 
regular  rattle  of  the  oar-locks;  the  murmuring  of  music  in  other 
chambers;  besides  a  drowsiness  and  a  lack  of  garish  light,  which 
reminds  one  of  the  Cave  of  Sleep  in  Spenser's  "  Faerie  Queen." 

When  a  stranger  is  admitted  to  such  a  palace,  she  is  com- 


CALLING  AT  THE  HA  REM- THE  SULTANA. 


521 


pelled  to  wait  awhile.  Slaves  appear  from  time  to  time,  with  the 
expression,  "Sheimdy!"  **Sheirody!"  This  means  that  after 
a  little — directly — the  lady  of  the  house  will  appear.  Then  comes 
a  stately  Circassian  dame.  She  is  authorized  to  conduct  the 
visitor  up  the  staircase  across  the  salon  into  the  presence  of  the 
mistress,  the  chief  hanvutn.  If  she  be  a  Sultana,  her  highness, 
observing  Frankish  ways,  is  seated  in  an  arm-chair  near  the  trel- 
lised  window  overlooking  the  Bosporus.  She  is  arranging  her 
toilet,  even  to  her  silk  antary,  in  French  style,  for  the  skirt  has 
not  put  in  a  general  appearance  within  these  sacred  precincts. 

Most  of  the  stately  dames  of  the  richer  harems  are  Circassian, 
of  fair  skin,  with  blonde  or  rather  chestnut  hair,  gray  or  grayish- 
blue  eyes,  a  charming  mouth  and  a  seraphic  smile.  The  Sul- 
tana who  is  to  be  portrayed  by  our  artist,  and  to  whom  reference 
has  been  made,  is  only  nineteen.  She  is  bright  and  well  informed 
as  to  the  current  news.  She  cultivates  those  harsh,  guttural 
sounds  which  are  the  sign  of  the  Arabic,  Persian,  or  aristocratic 
utterance  of  the  Turk.  She  is  a  daughter  of  Abdul  Medjid.  She 
marries  for  political  considerations.  Being  indoctrinated  with 
the  reform  movement,  which  at  that  time  was  making  many  a 
heart  flutter  in  the  dovecotes  of  the  East,  she  is  determined 
to  be  painted,  if  not  altogether,  yet  in  part,  as  wearing  a  Euro- 
pean lady's  ball  dress.  Of  course,  the  diamonds  are  abundant  on 
the  dress.  The.y  are  worth  a  satrapy,  and,  in  numbers  and  abun- 
dance, uncounted. 

Her  harem  consists  of  about  one  hundred  women  and  girls. 
They  are  variously  bestowed  in  the  palace.  As  a  sign  of  their 
belonging  to  this  special  harem  they  wear  a  toque  of  red  cloth, 
with  a  small  blue  tassel  hanging  from  it  at  the  back  of  the  head. 
It  is  a  symbol  of  subjection,  like  the  fez  of  an  Ottoman.  From 
the  observation  made  of  this  harem,  it  is  certain  that  its  inmates 
are  kindly  cared  for,  not  merely  in  the  every-day  repasts,  but  in 
the  amusements  which  they  improvise. 

The  visitor  at  Constantinople  who  goes  on  Friday  to  see  the 
Sultan  enter  the  mosque  at  prayers,  may,  if  he  keeps  his  eyes 
alert,  notice  many  servants  bearing  circular  wooden  trays  going  to 
or  coming  from  the  palace  of  Yildiz.  '  These  trays  are  covered  by 
a  thick  leather  cap,  and  the  whole  tied  up  in  a  woolen  cloth.  They 
are  borne  upon  the  head  of  the  stout  servitor  whom  I  have  pictured 
in  Chapter  VI.     From  them  are  furnished  the  meals  of  those  who 


52  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  V. 

depend  trpon  the  Sultan,  or  are  connected  with  him  by  blood. 
The  viands  are  delicate,  and  the  Sultana  whose  portrait  is  to  be 
taken  by  our  artist  receives  her  share  of  them  from  the  Imperial 
kitchen  at  Dolma  Bagtche. 

Another  observation  about  this  ^uasi-impena]  harem:  the 
pasha  who  married  this  Sultana  is  never  allowed  to  see  the  younger 
females  of  the  harem.  They  scatter  when  he  comes,  like  a  covey 
of  quail  on  the  appearance  of  a  hunter.  So,  too,  when  the  Sultana's 
brothers  arrive.  When  the  Sultan  himself  comes,  no  concealment 
is  necessary.  He  has  the  supreme  right  of  gazing  at  any  of  his 
subjects.     He  can  order  the  veil  to  be  removed! 

There  is  much  teaching  going  on  in  the  palace  of  this  Sultana^ 
most  of  the  teachers  being  native.  What  they  learn  is  Arabic, 
Turkish,  reading,  writing,  and  sometimes  arithmetic.  Some  of  the 
instruction  is  religious,  and  some  of  the  girls  of  the  harem  say 
their  prayers.  There  are  classes  in  music  and  dancing,  and 
lessons  on  the  string  instruments  which  are  peculiar  to  the  East. 
In  the  afternoon,  if  it  be  favorable,  the  garden  opens  for  these 
houri.  Every  Thursday  they  may  veil  themselves,  and,  with 
their  gala-colored  feridjies,  and  under  the  guard  of  a  eunuch,, 
disport  themselves  outside.  They  make  excursions  to  some 
favorite  place,  returning  before  the  sun  goes  down.  The  Sultana 
generally  remains  at  home,  taking  her  exercise  within  her  grounds. 
Here  she  has  a  little  lake,  with  a  little  boat.  She  has  a  horse  with 
a  side-saddle,  and  here  she  rides!  She  has  a  carriage,  and  drives 
about  within  her  own  petty  domain.  When  some  unusual  attrac- 
tion allures  her  from  her  seclusion,  she  carries  her  harem  with  hef, 
and  under  the  command  of  a  black  aga  she  takes  her  walk  or 
ride  either  to  the  "  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Asia  or  of  Europe. 

Our  artistic  friend,  in  making  a  picture  of  this  palace  and 
its  inmates,  gives  a  very  strange  lesson  as  to  their  endeavors 
to  be  amused.  The  Sultana  has  a  military  band.  They  are 
Georgians  and  Circassians.  One  lady  plays  the  flute,  another  the 
horn,  and  a  moon-faced  beauty  the  trombone;  while  another  fair 
one,  Yildiz  by  name — meaning  the  star  of  the  harem — crouches 
pensively  at  the  feet  of  a  blue-eyed,  dark-haired  girl  of  the  Orient^ 
who  could  not  sit  down  because  she  must  saw  a  monstrous  double- 
bass  viol.  The  double-bass  is  a  Chaldean.  Her  cheek  is  olive, 
her  eyes  immense,  and  the  fringes  of  her  eyelids  astounding. 
Being  of  mountain  growth,  she  has  a  wildness  of  temper  and  aspect 


524  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

which  nothing  but  the  big  double-bass  can  tame.  They  are 
dressed  after  the  manner  of  musicians.  They  wear  a  tunic  and 
pantaloons  of  white  woolen  stuff,  faced  with  blue,  and  little  shakos 
to  match.  They  are  quite  martial  in  their  appearance.  Perhaps 
they  furnish  the  hint  for  many  of  the  fine  displays  upon  our 
melodramatic  stage. 

How  are  they  taught  music  ?  Some  of  the  masters  in  the 
theatres  of  Constantinople  are  called  in  to  give  lessons.  While 
practising-with  the  masters,  the  women  use  a  strip  of  muslin  over 
the  head  and  shoulders,  not  always  a  successful  veiling  of  their 
charms. 

Not  satisfied  with  the  band  without  utilizing  it,  the  Sultana 
must  have  a  comic  dance,  then  a  Turkish  dance  and  a  pantomime. 
A  bright  girl  plays  the  young  hero,  who  is  a  Claude  Melnotte, 
except  that  he  is  a  house-painter  and_  not  a  gardener.  There  is 
a  heroine  and  a  porter,  each  of  whom  has  a  heavy  father,  and 
there  is  a  Harlequin  and  a  Columbine.  As  lawyers  say — this 
arrangement  is  bad  on  demurrer  for  multifariousness.  To  crown 
the  whole,  a  ballet  is  led  by  the  "Antelope" — a  beautiful  girl 
of  that  name.  The  pantomime  is  a  rendition  of  European  life, 
but  the  ball  which  follows  is  more  bizarre  than  the  pantomime 
is  fantastic.  It  is  painfully  unrealistic.  Our  artist  assists  them 
in  the  preparation.  One  of  her  instructions  is,  that  if  a  lady 
drops  her  handkerchief  her  partner  should  pick  it  up  and  restore 
it,  with  a  bow.  All  the  ladies  of  the  ball  provide  themselves 
with  gay  bandanas,  and  while  dancing  the  mazurka,  the  galop  or 
the  polka,  and  especially  in  the  quadrille,  the  floor  is  inconven- 
iently strewn  with  handkerchiefs.  The  ball  becomes  farcically 
European  by  this  extraordinary  politeness.  I  do  not  claim  any 
royalty  for  any  performance  which  may  be  suggested  by  these 
revelations  of  the  harem,  but  doubtless  many  of  the  most  interest- 
ing of  our  light  and  spectacular  dramas  have  their  source  in  the 
contrasts,  gayeties,  oddities,  simplicity  and  splendor  of  these  Ori- 
ental homes.  ' 

The  life  which  every  day  passes  in  the  ordinary  harem  is  not 
unlike  that  which  I  have  described  as  prevalent  in  this  palace.  In 
the  harem  of  a  well-to-do  Turk  there  is  a  leading  lady  called  the 
buyuk  hanoum.  She  is  the  principal  of  the  establishment — the  only 
wife,  perhaps,  of  the  pasha.  Her  home  may  be  full  of  female  rela- 
tives, for  the  Turk  is  nothing  if  not  hospitable.     Now  and  then  a 


NOMADS  IN  THE  HAREM. 


525 


buffoon  is  on  good  terms  with  the  family,  and  especially  with  the 
children.  One  thing,  however,  is  to  be  remarked  :  the  very  young 
girls  do  not  wear  the  yashmak  or  tht  feridjiey  but  otherwise  their 
costume  is  almost  the  same  as  their  mother's,  while  that  of  the 
boy  is  very  comical.  Almost  before  they  are  weaned  they  are 
dressed  up  in  the  full  uniform  of  a  pasha  or  military  officer — 
sword,  belt,  fez  and  epaulets.  Imagine  such  a  child,  when  tired 
of  his  uniform,  rushing  to  his  milk-mother  for  his  natural  refresh- 
ment. 

Generally  a  harem  is  made  up  of  the  women  of  various  nation- 
alities. Sometimes  it  is  difficult  to  harmonize  them.  I  should 
imagine  that  in  the  winter  season,  owing  to  the  peculiar  structure 
of  the  houses  and  the  insufficient  caloric  of  the  charcoal  pans^ 
there  would  not  be  very  much  visiting,  and  probably  not  as  much 
contentment,  as  in  spring  or  summer. 

There  is  something  inside  the  harem  which  reminds  one  of  the 
nomadic  ancestors  of  these  people.  The  very  beds  lie  around  as 
if  about  to  be  picked  up,  packed  and  carried  off.  Great  wicker 
trunks  and  camel's-hair  sacks  are  handy,  in  which  the  rich  stuffs, 
apparel  and  furniture  may  be  stowed  away  in  a  hurry;  so  that  at 
the  shortest  notice  the  domestic  paraphernalia  of  a  family  may 
either  be  packed  in  these  round  wicker  trunks,  ready  for  the 
caique  or  the  back  of  a  donkey,  or  in  these  camel-hair  sacks, 
which  suggest  the  wandering  Seljukians  of  six  centuries  ago. 
Besides,  as  fires  are  common,  it  is  convenient  to  pounce  upon  the 
dresses  and  furniture,  when  in  portable  shape,  and  save  them  from 
the  flames.  In  the  larger  houses  there  is  a  watchman,  kept  going 
her  or  his  rounds  about  the  building,  so  as  to  prevent  and  extin- 
guish conflagrations. 

The  slaves  of  the  household  are  paid  very  little  in  money. 
They  save  nothing;  for  what  they  receive  goes  for  the  trinkets  sold 
by  the  itinerant  Jewesses  who  come  along  the  quay  or  hills,  or  hang 
about  the  harems.  Still,  the  slaves  are  never  harshly  treated,  and 
if  they  are  sent  out  or  given  away  m  marriage,  they  are  always 
cared  for  when  their  proprietors  are  people  of  reasonable  opulence. 
In  the  Ramazan  season  this  life  of  the  harem  is  much  modified. 
It  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  women  are  regarded,  either  in 
the  teachings  of  the  Koran  or  otherwise,  as  soulless  persons. 

When  these  inmates  take  the  opportunity  of  their  freedom  to 
move  around   the  city  with  their  peerless  beauty  half  displayed. 


526 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


either  upon  foot  or  in  the  slow  progress  of  their  carriages  at  the 
grand  promenades,  there  may  be  chances  for  some  flirtation.  A 
forward  girl  may  make  mischief  for  a  whole  harem  or  family.  She 
may  not  mean  it ;  but  she  may  be  so  childish  as  to  smile  inadver- 
tently on  strangers.  Her  signs  and  coquetry  really  go  for  nothing; 
but  the  vanity  of  the  other  sex  is  inflamed,  and  trouble  ensues. 
Existence  mside  the  harem  is  too  vapid  for  some  constitutions. 
Some  of  the  harsh  objurgations  about  these  beauties  may  have  a 
piquant  foundation.  Doubtless  there  is  more  smoke  than  fire  in 
these  stories.  When  we  read  in  an  American  paper  of  the  im- 
proper, fascinating  and  mysterious  beauties  of  Constantinople, 
and  their  harem  life,  I  fail  to  find  the  facts  to  bear  out  the  roman- 
cing. 

I  have  been  told  by  a  gentleman,  now  a  leading  lawyer  of  New 
York,  and  formerly  a  teacher  of  mathematics  in  the  American 
(Robert)  College,  upon  the  hills  of  Roumeli-Hissar,  that  he  and 
the  students  were  accustomed  to  promenade  along  the  stony 
quays,  even  as  far  down  as  Bechiktash.  In  the  time  of  Abdul 
Aziz,  the  palace,  was  full  of  the  wives  and  odalisques  of  this  amor- 
ous Sultan.  They  could  be  seen  only  in  dim  profile,  by  our  pro- 
fessor and  the  students,  behind  the  lattices.  Were  they  heard  ? 
They  knew  who  the  young  men  were  and  where  from.  They 
were  in  the  habit  of  hailing  them  without  fear  of  the  eunuch,  the 
times  being  troublous  and  the  ebony  people  full  of  intrigue. 
What  do  you  think  these  houri  call  our  innocent  peripatetics  of 
the  quay  ?     In  sweet  notes  they  cry  out: 

**  Kuzu  Amerikhnji !  "     Lamb  of  America! 

Sometimes  they  add: 

"  Sheker"  which  is  the  Arab  root  of  our  word  sugar.  It  must 
have  been  provoking  to  hear  their  salutation: 

"  Sherifiniz  hair  ola  eng  ghyuzel  chok  kuzu"  or,  to  translate 
freely : 

"Good  evening,  most  pretty  and  much  confectionated  lamb." 

These  students  still  live  to  make  autonomy  in  Bulgaria,  preach 
the  gospel  in  Armenia,  and  practice  law  in  New  York.  They  were 
not  made  into  lamb  chops  by  the  headsman  of  Aziz.  These 
young  men  were  as  innocent  as  the  lambs  to  which  they  were 
likened ;  and  the  young  women  equally  so.  Still,  they  were  playful. 
Are  not  lambs  playful  by  nature  ? 

The  most  beautiful  of  the  women  of  the  capital  have  a  way,  in 


APOCRYPHAL  STORIES  OF  THE  FAIR  SEX. 


527 


the  presence  of  the  sterner  sex,  of  revealing,  coquettishly,  the 
contour  of  the  face,  and  the  exquisite  complexion  which  their 
incessant  bathing  bestows.  I  have  in  my  mind  an  article  in 
an  American  paper  purporting  to  have  been  written  last  May 
from  Constantinople.  It  pretends  to  give  a  sensational  account 
of  the  conduct  of  these  beauties  in  their  promenades  by  the 
"Sweet  Waters."  While  their  husbands  are  devoutly  smiting 
their  breasts  in  the  mosques,  the  Turkish  ladies,  it  is  hinted,  are 
driving  in  their  carriages,  enveloped  in  clouds  of  gauze  and  decked 
with  jewelry.  Where  is  the  eunuch  ?  it  is  asked.  He  sits  by  the 
coachman.  How  can  he  prevent  or  eclipse  the  flashing  of  the 
black,  swimming,  languid  eye  ?  The  thin  yashmak  has  not  the 
courage  to  conceal  such  eyes!  A  voluptuous  form,  delicately 
small  milk-white  hands,  blonde  locks,  or  perhaps  now  and  then 
raven  hair,  features  not  at  all  coarse — these  are  all  hidden.  The 
eye  alone  must  bear  all  the  odium  of  an  intriguante. 

These  stories  are  born  of  the  sensual  pen.  Some  writer  de- 
sires to  get  his  penny-a-line,  and  he  represents  the  hanouttiy  not 
as  giving  her  numerous  lovers  the  sack,  in  our  homely  phrase, 
but  as  actually  killing  them  for  self-safety.  And  thus  a  story 
goes,  that  a  beautiful  houri  of  a  pasha's  harem  in  Cairo  actually 
killed  one  hundred  and  twenty  beautiful  Greek  gentlemen,  whom 
she  had  induced  by  her  flirtations  to  enter  her  siren  home — and 
all  within  three  brief  years  !  And  thus,  too,  the  old  story  about 
the  sacks  filled  with  such  degenerate  beauties  being  sunk  in  the 
river  where  it  was  deepest.  These  are  the  illusions  of  the  roman- 
cist.  The  Moslem  cares  more  than  is  represented  about  the  de- 
fection in  his  harem.  But  is  he  not  a  Moslem  ?  What  is  writ  is 
writ,  and  he  can  divorce  and  wed  again  ! 

Among  the  fables  which  are  related  by  the  amateur  tourist  for 
the  open-eyed  wonder  of  his  fair  cousins  at  home,  is  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  magnificent  buildings  and  romantic  adventures  upon 
the  superb  streets  through  which  he  has  the  pleasure  to  pass  in 
surveying  these  lands  of  old  renown.  I  have  read  an  account  of 
a  young  writer  who  said  that  as  he  passed  through  some  of  the 
streets  they  seemed  deserted.  He  could  fancy  himself  walking 
through  the  streets  of  Pompeii,  when,  hark  !  a  light  laugh  is 
heard!  He  looks  up.  Voil^!  A  pair  of  sparkling  black  eyes 
dance  at  him  for  a  moment  behind  the  jalousie,  and  then  disap- 
pear.   He  advances  a  little  farther;  he  hears  a  gentle  cough,  then 


528  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

a  flower  from  an  upper  casement  drops  at  his  feet  from  a  tiny 
jeweled  hand,  and  the  romance  ends.  These  mysterious  revela- 
tions are  made  more  entrancing  by  the  sound  of  a  soft  Turk- 
ish love-song,  but  no  stenographer  is  possible,  and  the  susceptible 
young  traveler  cudgels  his  head  to  know  whether  he  is  living  in 
the  resplendent  afternoon  of  the  nineteenth  century  or  has  been 
transported  back  to  the  golden  days  of  Haroun  Al-Raschid. 

One  of  these  houris  is  upon  the  streets  of  Pera.  She  drops 
her  fan.  Her  jeweled  hand  is  reluctant  to  reach  for  it;  the  eunuch 
is  not  prompt  enough;  the  carriage  stops;  the  fan  is  picked  up  by 
a  handsome  giaour;  the  eunuch  is  sent  to  a  restaurant  for  a  glass 
of  sherbet;  she  writes  a  little  note  on  a  cigarette  tablet,  with  her 
dainty  diamonded  pencil,  and,  making  a  ball  with  the  small  leaf, 
drops  the  billet,  which  the  youthful  admirer  picks  up  with  rapt- 
ure. Thus  a  rendezvous  is  said  to  be  arranged,  generally  in 
some  fashionable  millinery  establishment  on  the  Grand  Rue  or  in 
some  other  resort  in  Stamboul.  It  is  a  pity  to  emasculate  such 
pretty  tales.  They  are  from  the  inner  consciousness  of  the  writer. 
I  venture  to  say  that  no  one  knows  of  any  such  extraordinary 
practices. 

Nothing  is  more  dangerous,  especially  for  a  Christian  man, 
than  thus  to  dally.  One  case  is  always  cited,  and  only  one.  It  is 
so  exceptional  as  to  prove  the  rule  otherwise.  That  is  the  case  of 
the  mother  of  Izzet  Bey.  The  latter  is  a  noted  exquisite  of  the 
capital.  She  was  married  to  a  son  of  Fuad  Pasha,  the  Grand 
Vizier,  some  few  years  ago.  She  was  a  rare  woman,  wath  all  the 
accomplishments  of  the  East  and  West.  She  received  Christians 
at  her  house.  She  eloped  with  a  Belgian  secretary  of  Legation. 
In  three  days  the  pair  were  in  Paris.  Of  course  she  was  married, 
and  yet  lives,  as  it  is  said,  a  happy  life.  This  case  is  one  among 
ten  thousand,  and  not  altogether  unlovely. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  something  of  intrigue  which  borders  on  the 
humorous,  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  proper  medical 
attendance.  The  day  of  incantation  is  being  supplanted  by  med- 
ical science,  and  the  diseases  which  too  partial  mothers  sometimes 
create,  by  cramming  their  infants  with  indigestible  food,  are  yield- 
ing to  better  sense  and  medical  skill. 

The  Turkish  woman  is  neither  so  bad  nor  so  good  as  she  is 
painted.  If  I  should  pick  out  one  prevailing  quality,  I  should  say 
that  she  is  a  good  eater.     Elsewhere  I  have  described  a  Turkish 


ENCOMIUM  ON  TURKISH  WOMEN. 


529 


meal.  But  nothing  can  describe  the  amount  of  confectionery 
and  tobacco  consumed  in  the  harem,  and  outside,  at  the  picnics 
of  its  inmates.  The  hanoum  is  inordinately  fond  of  jewelry,  and  has 
just  enough  vanity  to  be  interesting.  Her  coquetry  is  not  of  the 
perilous  kind.  She  obeys  her  lord  and  master  passively.  Her 
peculiar  affections,  judging  by  her  associations,  are  with  her  chil- 
dren, her  slaves  and  friends.  No  one  can  justly  say  that  the 
Turkish  mother,  notwithstandng  much  slander  about  the  prema- 
ture destruction  of  the  infant,  has  not  great  maternal  love.  Unless 
educated  after  the  European  method,  she  is  but  a  grown  child, 
and  her  time  is  passed  in  much  frivolity.  When  her  lord  appears, 
she  makes  a  seemly  acquiescence  and  her  gossip  stops. 

The  literature  which  pretends  to  describe  the  East  is  permeated 
with  stories  of  Turkish  intrigue.  The  subject  commands  the 
attention,  especially  of  the  ardent  and  young.  But  he  who  writes 
of  these  matters  should  understand  the  domestic  economy  of  the 
Turkish  system,  its  inveterate  usage  and  its  progressive  ameliora- 
tion. From  the  information  which  I  hare  received — and  especially 
from  the  accounts  of  trustworthy  women  who  have  been  admitted 
into  the  harem,  such  as  I  have  endeavored  to  describe — I  am  sure 
that  there  is  almost  as  much  freedom  given  to  the  Turkish  women 
as  there  is  to  the  English  or  American.  Although  they  have  not 
as  much  choice  in  the  selection  of  their  husbands  as  other  women, 
nevertheless  they  do  resist  temptations  that  are  thrown  about  them, 
notwithstanding  the  small  number  of  amusements  by  which  their 
ennui  is  sought  to  be  mitigated.  What  with  their  needlework, 
their  studies,  their  housework,  the  reception  of  Visitors  and  their 
wifely  duties,  not  to  speak  of  the  constant  and  loving  care  of 
their  clustering  children,  the  great  body  of  those  who  make  the 
harem  their  home  do  so  from  conscientious  and  affectionate 
motives.  Their  love  of  nature  and  their  pious  thoughts,  their 
visits,  their  baths,  the  cultivation  of  their  love  of  jewelry,  flowers, 
and  toilet — these  furnish  much  restraint  on  their  naturally  passion- 
ate natures,  and  for  the  practice  of  that  restraint  they  are  entitled 
to  at  least  the  good-will  of  other  women  who  are  bom  under  more 
favoring  stars.  Besides,  it  is  not  by  any  means  to  be  forgotten 
that  the  tendency  at  the  present  time  is  against  polygamy  in 
Turkey,  and  that  but  very  few  of  the  better  families  have  more 
than  one  wife  within  the  harem. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE   EUNUCH    AND    OTHER   INCIDENTS   OF   THE    HAREM. 


THE  EUNUCH  OF   1 887. 


Why  should  there  be  so  much  discussion  about  the  Turkish 
harem  and  the  numerous  wives  of  the  Sultan  ?  Is  not  Turkey  a 
country  where,  from  time  immemorial,  the  polygamous  custom 
has  existed  ?     If  she  be  so  bad,  why  have  a  Minister  there  ?     Or, 

530 


EUNUCHS  OF  THE  EAST. 


531 


to  go  further,  why  cultivate  the  good-will  of  the  Chinese  Emperor, 
whose  palace  holds  some  five  thousand  male  slaves,  who  act  as 
guards  upon  the  harem  of  the  Emperor,  who  has  as  many  young 
beauties  in  his  seraglio  ?  The  Emperor  of  China  is  named  Kuang 
Hsu.  That  signifies  "  Succession  of  Glory."  He  is  seventeen  years 
of  age,  and  is  about  to  take  a  wife.  She  has  been  chosen  from  the 
family  of  Duke  Choa,  a  Manchou  nobleman.  Kuang  does  not 
have  any  choice  himself.  His  mother,  the  Empress  Dowager, 
makes  the  match.  But  if  Kuang  does  not  affect  the  duke's 
daughter,  he  may  solace  himself —as  Solomon  did — by  numer- 
ous secondary  wives.  At  present  the  Mahometan  law  seems  to 
be  the  legal  limit  allowed  by  the  Dowager,  viz.,  four.  There  is 
quite  a  rivalry  among  the  Manchou  officials,  as  to  which  family 
shall  furnish  the  remaining  three  wives.  These  officers  delight, 
in  having  the  prettiest  of  their  daughters  in  the  Imperial  harem. 
They  are  the  rounds  upon  the  ladder  of  their  preferment.  The 
young  ladies  of  China  begin  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  remain 
inside  the  harem  until  they  are  twenty-five  ;  but  woe  be  to  them 
if  they  fail  to  bring  forth  children.  In  that  case,  they  are  sent 
home  to  their  illustrious  parents  to  wed  some  local  Mandarin. 
The  Emperor  of  China  also  has  his  eunuchs.  This  custom  is 
handed  down  to  him  from  the  early  Mogul  sovereigns;  and  these 
sovereigns  obtained  their  customs  from  what  is  known  as  the 
Assyrian  and  Turkish  empires.  The  defense  of  this  institution 
of  polygamy,  in  its  extent  and  that  of  the  eunuch  as  its  guardian, 
is  based  upon  one  idea,  and  one  only  :  China,  like  Turkey,  will 
not  allow  the  nation  to  be  disappointed  by  the  failure  of  an  heir 
to  the  throne. 

I  have  hinted  that  in  Constantinople  there  is  not  what  we  call 
**  society  "  among  the  Turkish  people.  Women  are  indispensa- 
ble to  society,  but  they  form  no  part  of  the  general  society  of 
the  Orient,  All  their  amusements  they  must  find  for  themselves. 
They  interchange  much  comfort,  gossip  and  pleasure  ;  but  in  their 
harems,  at  their  picnics  and  in  their  baths,  they  are  isolated  from 
all  the  world  e.\cept  themselves.  Upon  the  street,  no  husband 
dare  appear  with  his  wife. 

The  head  female  of  a  family  may  be  seen  sitting  under  a 
sycamore  upon  the  green  grass,  or,  rather,  upon  a  Smyrna  carpet. 
Within  twenty  paces  is  her  husband,  who  has  his  own  male  coterie. 
Custom  forbids  them  to  turn  their  eyes  toward  one  another.    The 


532  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  I\  TURKE  Y. 

women,  with  a  freedom  humorous  beyond  expression,  make  their 
fun  at  the  expense  of  the  men,  and  with  a  language  too,  as  it  is 
said,  as  astonishing  as  it  is  sometimes  indelicate. 

The  home  life  of  the  Turk  is  bound  up  with  the  harem.  Any 
information  concerning  it  must  be,  at  best,  second  hand,  unless 
some  trustworthy  woman  has  the  privilege  of  entering  the  estab- 
lishment. 

Do  you  ask  whether  they  lament  their  condition  ?  A  few  of 
them  who  have  come  in  contact  with  the  outer  world  have  a  nat- 
ural ambition  to  travel,  and  to  see  more  and  mix  with  those 
whose  influences  and  habits  are  so  novel  to  them.  The  body  of 
them,  however,  do  not  care  for  other  society  than  their  female 
friends,  their  children  and  husbands.  No  man  addresses  them 
except  the  shop-keeper.  I  have  to  repeat  in  this  connection,  that  the 
universal  head-dress  is  a  white  handkerchief.  A  plain  cloak  of 
cloth  or  silk  covers  the  whole  person,  and  is  fastened  with  a  common 
clasp.  The  silk  feridjie  is  used  for  the  better  class.  They  wear 
no  gloves,  but  their  fingers  have  a  stain  with  which  the  reader  is 
no  doubt  familiar.  This  henna  stain  is  growing  obsolete.  Their 
complexions  are  somewhat  sallow,  and  their  gait  is  listless  ;  but 
their  eyes — ! 

The  visitor  to  Turkey  is  at  first  surprised  at  seeing  so  many 
females  roaming  about  the  city,  apparently  aimless.  He  wonders 
that  so  much  freedom  should  be  allowed.  This  wonder  comes 
from  his  ignorance  of  their  relation.  The  wife  can  go  and  come 
at  her  pleasure.  She  has  no  reproach  from  her  husband.  He 
may,  to  be  sure,  enter  her  apartment  when  he  pleases  and  at  all 
hours;  but  he  never  avails  himself  of  this  privilege.  He  rarely 
summons  his  wife  or  his  family  to  his  own  room  in  the  Salemlik. 
There  is  one  sight  for  him  always,  as  a  reminder.  If  he  sees  a 
slipper  at  the  door  of  the  harem,  it  is  a  sign  that  he  is  not  wanted. 
The  truth  is  that  the  Turkish  woman  is  more  free  than  almost  any 
other  woman.  If  she  wishes  to  drive  or  promenade  or  call  upon 
a  friend,  she  summons  her  slave,  who  carries  her  little  bundle, 
adjusts  her  veil,  covers  her  toilet  with  hex  feridjie,  and  goes.  She 
can  spend  several  days  with  her  friend  without  exciting  any 
alarm  or  suspicion  on  the  part  of  her  husband. 

The  black  eunuch  known  as  the  aga,  or  lala — which  are  syn- 
onymous terms  with  guardian — is  of  a  class  of  slaves  found  in  the 
houses  of  rank  and  wealth.     They  are  kept,  just  as  a  family  in 


DOMESTIC  OFFICES  OF  THE  EUNUCH. 


533 


New  York  would,  keep  a  carriage,  to  denote  the  social  position. 
This  eunuch  is  haughty.  He  is  defiant  of  public  opinion.  He 
resents  smiles  and  sarcasm  at  his  expense,  when  in  public;  but 
when  in  charge  of  the  women  in  the  harem  he  is  quite  good- 
natured.  There  is  much  exaggeration  about  his  acting  as  a 
messenger  in  intrigues.  His  office  consists  in  caring  for  the 
children  when  walking  out  or  driving,  and  he  has  much  to  bear 
from  the  willful  whims  of  the  little  Beys  and  petites  hanoums. 
There  is  always  a  porter  or  a  guardian  of  the  harem  on  hand  at 
the  door  of  the  harem.  He  allows  nobody  to  come  in  or  go  out 
without  inquisition.  He  is  the  engineer  or  the  waiter  by  which 
matters  and  things  are  passed  in  and  out  of  the  harem.  He  is  by 
no  means  a  dumb-waiter,  either;  for  the  women  of  the  harem 
keep  him  continually  on  the  go.  Without  repose  or  kef^  he  must 
fulfill  every  possible  commission.  This  provokes  a  good  deal  of 
Moslem  profanity.  Invention  has,  however,  come  to  relieve  this 
guardian  somewhat;  for  there  is  in  the  Salemlik  wall  a  wheel.  It 
is  like  the  baby-basket  at  the  door  of  the  foundling  asylum. 
The  wheel  operates  as  a  sort  of  horizontal  dumb-waiter.  It  facili- 
tates the  service  between  the  harem  and  the  Salemlik,  without 
permitting  the  women  to  be  seen. 

Excepting  the  husband,  no  other  man  is  allowed  to  enter  the 
harem.  It  is  a  cardinal  sin  for  a  woman  to  appear  with  her  face 
uncovered  before  a  stranger.  If  she  happens  to  be  about  the 
house  or  in  the  garden  when  a  stranger,  be  it  Mussulman  or 
foreigner,  unexpectedly  enters,  she  rushes  for  anything  handy — 
a  handkerchief,  a  pillow  or  even  a  dish,  with  which  to  hide  her 
face.  The  Sultan  alone  enjoys  the  privilege  of  free  access  to 
every  harem;  and  then  all  the  women  in  that  harem  have  to  stand 
before  His  Majesty  with  their  faces  uncovered. 

When  the  eunuchs  accompany  the  ladies  on  their  expeditions, 
the  latter  drive  always  in  closed  carriages,  the  eunuchs  following 
on  foot  or  horseback,  with  a  lash  in  their  hand,  which  comes 
down  like  lightning  on  any  foreigner  who  approaches  too  near. 
Turkish  ladies  are,  however,  no  less  artful  than  their  European 
sisters;  and  eunuchs  nowadays,  are  not  hopelessly  incorruptible. 
The  office  of  Chief  Eunuch  of  the  Imperial  palace  is  a  very 
important  one,  and  the  holder  of  it  ranks  equally  with  the  Grand 
Vizier  and  Ministers  of  state.  He  is  often  admitted  to  the  privy 
councils  of  the  Sultan.     His  title  has  a  grandiose  sound.     He  is 


534 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


styled  "  His  Highness  the  Guardian  of  the  Gate  of  the  Impe- 
rial Felicity  and  Repose."  'He  is  the  head  of  the  household  of 
the  Sultan.  Of  him  and  his  functions,  which  are  many,  I  may 
add  that  he  is  considered  almost  as  much  of  an  attraction,  and 
is  saluted  with  as  much  consideration,  as  a  first-class  bull-fighter 
in  Spain.  He  is  often  the  object  of  lyric  poetry!  Why  ?  Because 
he  has  an  influence  upon  the  Sultan  and  thus  upon  politics.  This 
influence  he  exerts,  often,  through  the  women  of  the  harem.  When 
he  is  inaugurated  at  the  palace  there  is  much  display.  He  rides 
to  the  palace  on  a  fine  horse.  His  decorations  glitter  on  his 
breast.  He  is  received  by  the  aides  of  the  Sultan.  Lambs  are 
slaughtered  as  a  token  of  welcome;  and  servants  look  up  to  him 
as  to  a  demi-god.  The  emblem  of  his  office  is  a  silver  pastoral  staff. 
Why  pastoral  ?  Does  he  not  care  for  the  lambs  ?  He  becomes 
"  Aga  of  the  Sublime  House  of  Othman,"  by  which  title  he  is 
designated  in  his  commission. 

The  Chief  of  the  Eunuchs  has  just  died.  The  sad  news  is 
wafted  to  our  hemisphere  as  I  correct  the  proof  of  this  chapter. 
His  name  was  Hafiz  Behram  Aga.  He  is  now  among  the  angels — 
or  the  houris.  Those  who  speak  French  at  the  palace  called  him 
FAltessc  Noire — literally,  His  Black  Highness  !  He  was  nearly 
fourscore  years  of  age  and  quite  black,  of  pure  Nubian  descent. 
I  recall  his  burly,  gigantic  form.  He  had  an  imperial  air;  and 
when  he  bore  the  keys  about  him  he  was  sublime.  He  was  a 
moss-back  Moslem  of  the  old  type.  He  had  no  love  for  the  inno- 
vations of  the  harem  or  the  persons  of  Europeans.  The  appoint- 
ment of  a  successor  has  given  rise  to  much  surmise,  and,  it  is  said, 
great  excitement  in  and  around  the  palace.  An  Armenian,  it  is 
rumored,  has  carried  off  the  prize.  The  people  of  that  race  are 
never  backward  where  power  is  attainable.  No  sacrifice  is  too 
great  for  its  acquisition.  He  is  a  white  man,  but,  as  the  ** insert" 
shows,  it  is  nothing  new  to  have  a  white  Chief  of  the  Eunuchs. 
The  illustration  represents  these  twain,  in  company  with  a  favor- 
ite dwarf.  They  are  all  of  the  time  of  Mahmoud  II.,  the  grand- 
father of  the  present  Sultan.  They  are  faithful  portraits — dress, 
color  and  features.  The  eunuch  of  our  time  is  not  so  gorgeously 
appareled. 

Next  to  the  hamal  who  labors  under  burdens,  or,  perhaps,  to  the 
dogs  of  Constantinople,  who  excite  so  much  pity,  I  think  the 
Eunuch  should  have  the  most  compassion.  He  is  an  incarnation  of 


CHIEF  OF  THE  Black  EUMUCHS. 


Dwarf        Chief  of  the  white  Euhuchs 


SADDEST  PICTURE  LV  THE  ORIENT.  535 

a  degradation  too  infamous  for  the  ordinary  human  nature  which 
has  inflicted  it.  He  does  not  belong  alone  to  Turkish  civilization. 
This  the  Bible  shows  us.  There  were  great  men  among  the  eu- 
nuchs in  the  time  of  the  Greek  empire.  Because  of  his  mutilation, 
which  has  its  hidden  and  physiological  or  other  reason,  the 
eunuch  who  walks  with  slow  step  and  swinging  arms,  upon  the 
quay  of  the  Bosporus,  is  a  pitiable  object.  He  is  the  policeman 
of  a  system  of  which  he  is  the  victim.  It  is  his  figure  drawn 
against  the  sweet  and  beautiful  Oriental  sky  which  is  the  most 
revolting.  He  is  not  an  invalid  in  one  sense.  He  has  survived 
the  knife ;  but  it  was  not  the  knife  of  a  sanitary  and  religious 
ceremony,  like  circumcision. 

Some  of  these  sad-eyed  creatures,  as  I  have  seen  them  at  the 
restaurants  in  the  city  and  along  the  quays,  are  garrulous  to  a 
degree.  Most  of  them  are  tall  and  long-legged.  Some  are  fat,  but 
their  flesh  has  an  unnatural  flabbiness.  Even  when  young  their 
faces  are  often  withered.  Even  when  manly  looking  they  are 
beardless.  To  one  who  has  been  familiar  with  the  presiding  elder 
of  a  Methodist  church,  their  long,  dark,  straight-cut  frock-coat, 
with  pantaloons  h  la  Franka,  there  is  a  curious  and  comical 
resemblance.  Their  coat  has  no  collar  which  turns  over.  It  has 
a  famous  row  of  buttons  which  suggest  the  good  brother  of  the 
camp-meeting.  In  vain  would  we  seek  in  the  hand  of  that  brother 
the  whip  of  hippopotamus-hide  which  the  eunuch  carries  as  the 
symbol  of  his  office.  They  have  a  quiet,  long  stride,  like  that  of 
the  gods  whose  feet  were  shod  with  wool,  or  like  that  of  the  bur- 
glar, who  goes  to  his  prey  with  a  soft  and  sinister  step.  They  are 
not  now  so  common  in  Constantinople  as  they  were  in  times 
past,  but  still  they  are  seen  everywhere.  Their  looks  indicate  no 
special  expression,  until  some  giaour  casts  a  too  curious  look  at 
the  object  of  their  vigilance;  then  the  jealous  ferocity  of  their 
temper  is  quickly  displayed. 

The  men  of  this  class  do  not  take  much  interest  in  human 
conduct  around  them,  except  in  the  line  of  their  daily  duty.  I 
have  watched  them  in-doors  and  out.  They  have  no  social  jocun- 
dity among  men,  whether  white  or  black.  Their  clothes  are  always 
of  glossy  and  fine  broadcloth.  They  have  an  air  of  the  inner  circle 
of  the  harem.  They  are  perfumed  with  all  the  essential  vanities, 
from  the  attar  of  roses  down  to  the  latest  importation  of  cologne. 

That  man  who  derides  them  is  only  a  little  less  than  a  brute. 


236  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

It  is  heartless  to  greet  them  with  a  laugh.  It  is  a  mistake  to  sup- 
pose that  they  do  not  know  and  feel  their  isolation  and  misfortune. 
They  are  called  the  custodians  of  a  felicity,  the  barriers  of 
jealousy,  the  bolts  on  the  door,  and  the  rags  to  hide  the  treasure 
existing  among  the  glories  of  youth,  with  all  its  sweetness  of  pas- 
sion and  gladness  of  living.  They  are  nameless,  loveless,  almost 
outside  the  pale  of  humanity.  Is  it  strange,  therefore,  that  they 
become  the  instruments  of  intrigue  for,  as  well  as  the  jailors  of, 
those  who  tempt  them  ?  It  is  said  that  even  the  cruel  coquetries 
of  the  harem  pursue  them,  and  that  some  of  them,  who  have  sen- 
sual passion  left,  even  in  a  very  small  degree,  are  crazed  by  their 
peculiar  situation. 

Some  of  these  men  have  been  mutilated  in  their  African  home, 
at  the  head-waters  of  the  Nile,  and  some  in  Syria.  When  they  are 
made  the  servants  of  the  Pasha's  harem  they  are  decorated  in  a 
thousand  ways  with  a  cruel  mockery  of  phrases.  They  are  called 
the  ** possessors  of  the  lily,"  "keepers  of  the  rose,"  and  "tillers 
in  the  garden  of  the  hyacinth  "  !  They  take  their  revenge,  how- 
ever, upon  mankind,  and  although  they  are  not  Tartars,  who  are 
worst  when  caught,  they  are  something  worse  in  their  debasement. 
"Who  shall  blame  them?  Their  condition  is  not  of  their  own 
seeking. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  a  paragraph  which  bears  the 
evidences  of  veri-similitude.     It  is  from  De  Amicis: 

"  One  evening,"  the  doctor  said  to  me,  "  I  was  coming  out 
of  a  rich  Mussulman's  house,  where  I  had  gone  for  the  third  time 
to  visit  one  of  his  wives,  who  had  disease  of  the  heart.  At  my 
departure,  as  at  my  arrival,  I  was  accompanied  by  a  eunuch^ 
calling  out  in  the  customary  way,  *  Women,  withdraw  ! '  in 
order  to  warn  ladies  and  slaves  that  a  stranger  is  in  -the  harem, 
and  that  they  must  not  be  seen.  In  the  courtyard  the  eunuch 
left  me  to  find  my  own  way  to  the  gate.  Just  as  I  was  about  to 
open  it,  I  felt  a  touch  upon  my  arm,  and  turning,  saw  before  me 
in  the  twilight  another  eunuch,  a  young  man  of  eighteen  or 
twenty  years  of  age,  who  looked  fixedly  at  me,  with  eyes  swim- 
ming in  tears.  I  asked  him  what  he  wished.  He  hesitated  a 
moment  to  reply,  and  then  seizing  my  hand  in  both  of  his,  and 
pressing  it  convulsively,  he  said  in  a  trembling  voice,  full  of 
despairing  grief,  '  Doctor!  you  who  know  the  remedy  for  every 
ill,  do  you  know  of  none  for  mine  ? '     T  cannot  tell  you  how  those 


HOUSEWIFERY  IN  THE  EAST. 


537 


simple  words  affected  me  ;  I  tried  to  answer,  but  my  voice  failed 
me,  and  hastily  opening  the  door,  I  took  to  flight.  But  all  that 
evening,  and  for  many  days  after,  the  figure  of  the  youth  stood 
before  me,  and  I  heard  his  words,  and  my  eyes  moistened." 

How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  A  good  man  would  be  painfully 
struck  with  the  appearance  and  emotions  of  the  eunuch. 

He  has  a  part  not  only  in  the  history  of  the  Orient,  but  in  its 
present  condition.  Gibbon  has  said  that  the  higher  the  price  of  the 
eunuch,  the  more  corrupt  was  the  empire.  He  spoke  this  in  refer- 
ence to  the  Greek  empire  and  its  white  eunuchs. 

I  cannot  picture  to  my  mind  a  more  humble  situation  than  that 
of  these  God-forsaken  images  of  their  maker.  They  are  of  our  kind, 
or,  rather,  among  their  kind,  but  not  of  them.  They  are  the  most 
striking  examples  of  "  man's  inhumanity  to  man,"  and  of  that 
selfish  sensuality   for  which  there  is  no  name  in  any  language. 

The  common  families,  the  groups  of  whom  you  may  see  stroll- 
ing around  the  high  places  of  the  hills,  and  the  green,  shady  spots 
of  the  meadows,  are  not  guarded  by  the  eunuch.  Only  families 
of  rank  or  wealth  are  thus  accompanied. 

The  women  of  the  East,  the  Turkish  women  at  least,  remind 
me  of  the  peacocks.  They  seek  the  high  places,  where  at  least 
they  can  be  admired.  They  are  quite  gregarious  among  them- 
selves. You  always  see  them  in  groups  of  four,  si.x  and 
eight,  and  uniformly  clad  in  their  long  mantles.  Those  of  the 
poorer  class  are  generally  clad  in  white  cotton  mantles.  Thus 
clad  they  look  like  troops  of  phantoms.  Moreover,  it  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  these  groups  of  veiled  women  are  in  all  respects 
good  examples  of  the  housewifery  of  the  Moslem.  These  have 
more  or  less  broken  away  from  the  old  customs.  The  class  of 
women  who  really  give  tone  to  the  social  order  in  Constantinople 
are  those  who  are  seldom  seen  in  public.  They  have  never  passed 
the  threshold  of  the  harem.  Their  lives  are  engrossed  with 
home  duties.  Their  visits  are  rare.  Their  outside  occupations 
consist  in  the  inspection  of  the  wares  of  female  pedlers,  an  occa- 
sional jaunt  in  the  country,  and  a  picnic  upon  the  shore;  still, 
they  are  always  superintending  the  larder,  as  other  women  do  in 
other  countries.  They  make  pickles  and  preser\'es  ;  look  after 
the  clothes  of  their  children  and  the  raiment  of  their  slaves  ;  dis- 
tribute alms  to  those  who  call,  buy  provisions  and  clothes,  and  in 
other  respects  fulfill  the  obligations  of  a  good  Mahometan,  the 


538  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

chief  among  which  is  alms-giving.  Of  course,  a  woman  of  this 
class  is  always  ready  to  receive  visitors.  Oftentimes,  if  she  be  a 
woman  of  means,  she  has  a  lady-superintendent,  who  relieves 
her  of  much  of  this  duty.  This  assistant  greets  the  visitor  at  the 
door  of  the  harem.  The  visitor  is  supported  by  the  elbow  up  the 
stairs  ;  then  the  veil  and  tho.  feridjie  are  removed.  If  the  visitor 
retain  a  band  of  muslin  across  the  forehead,  it  is  understood  that 
she  will  not  stay  long  ;  still,  the  practice  prevails  of  removing  the 
yashmak  to  be  ironed,  and  the.  feridjie  to  be  carefully  folded 
away.  The  same  toilet  is  resumed,  preliminary  to  the  departure  of 
the  guest.  In  these  calls  there  is  much  smoking,  coffee-drinking 
and  talking,  but  nothing  excessive.  The  young  ladies  of  the  family 
always  quietly  defer  to  the  elders.  I  am  bound  to  say,  from 
reliable  information,  that  their  conversation  is  not,  as  represented, 
of  the  malodorous  quality.  The  house  is  scrupulously  clean.  It 
ought  to  be  so,  as  the  floor,  or  the  matting  on  the  floor,  is  used 
for  spreading  out  their  fabrics  when  they  would  cut  out  or  fold 
garments.  They  do  not  permit  a  stain  on  the  prayer-carpet,  and 
hence  no  one  enters  who  does  not  leave  the  out-door  shoes  at  the 
door. 

If  you  ask  me  to  what  particular  spots  the  Turkish  women 
resort  in  their  recreations,  I  can  only  answer  by  another  question: 
"  In  what  place  are  they  not  to  be  found  before  the  going  down  of 
the  sun?"  They  always  arise  early.  They  are  always  in  the 
bazaars.  They  crowd  the  steamers  going  up  and  down  the  Bos- 
porus. They  visit  the  "  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Europe  and  Asia.  If 
you  cross  the  bridge  between  Galata  and  Stamboul,  lo!  at  all 
hours  the  veiled  mystery  is  there  in  grand  procession.  Ascend 
the  tower  of  Galata,  and  lo  !  she  is  there.  You  hear  that 
she  cannot  attend  the  mosque;  but  she  does.  Friday  evening 
prayer-meetings  draw  her  out  in  Ramazan  season,  for  have  I  not 
seen  her  as  coy  and  debonnaire  there  as  upon  the  hills  of  Prinkipo  ? 
She  may  be  a  slave  inside  of  beautiful  gardens,  grottoes  and 
chambers,  surrounded  by  slaves,  smoking  her  chibouque  and 
drinking  her  sherbet,  but  she  is  about  as  free  and  lively  a  slave 
as  you  can  find  in  many  a  day's  travel.  No  one  interrupts  her. 
No  policeman  and  no  one  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  composite  city 
offer  her  discourtesy,  much  less  indignity.  Her  veil  is  as  sacred 
as  that  of  a  nun.  She  may  be  served  at  a  shop  kept  by  an  Arme- 
nian, or  waited  on  at  a  millmery  store  by  a  Hebrew,  or  be  shown 


THE  SENSUALITY  OF  THE  HAREM. 


539 


to  a  bath  by  a  Nubian,  or  be  rowed  in  a  caique  by  a  Greek  ;  she 
may  buy  her  grapes  from  a  Syrian,  and  her  fish  from  a  Maltese;  or 
be  sailing  in  a  steamer  commanded  by  a  Dalmatian,  or  be  driven 
by  a  Bulgarian  coachman,  and  be  doctored  by  the  English  phy- 
sician, whose  prescription  is  filled  by  a  French  druggist;  and  her 
elegant  teeth,  albeit  inclined  to  confectionery,  may  be  filled  by  an 
American  dentist,  and  her  rounded  arm  be  vaccinated  by  an  Ital- 
ian doctor;  but  not  one  word  of  insult  or  gesture  of  interruption 
are  ever  shown  by  these  varied  populations,  even  in  their  high 
carnival,  toward  the  rara  avis  of  the  pashalic  cage. 

Writers  upon  the  Turkish  empire  attribute  most  of  the  dis- 
asters and  all  of  the  decadence  of  that  empire  to  the  mischievous 
creed  of  Mahometanism.  They  hold  that  creed,  and  especially 
the  sensualism  which  is  taught  by  it,  to  be  a  hindrance  to  prog- 
ress. Indeed,  all  the  prophecies  which  have  been  rife  for  two 
hundred  years  as  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Turkish  race  have 
been  founded  upon  the  alleged  sensual  character  of  their  religion. 
Doubtless  it  is  true  that  the  antipathy  of  the  Christian  to  the 
Turk  is  due  to  those  passions  which  mock  the  best  precepts 
of  the  Moslem,  Christian  and  Hebrew  religions  ;  but  as  Dr. 
Hamlin  well  remarks,  while  approaching  the  worst  attribute  of 
Moslemism — its  sensualism — "this  feature  is  found  rather  in  tra- 
dition than  in  the  Koran."  It  is  almost  impossible  to  reconcile 
the  stories  told  about  the  conversation  and  the  conduct  of  the 
women  of  the  harem  with  other  reports  which  are  made  upon  that 
subject  by  some  of  our  best  women. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Turks  deny  to  the  woman 
the  possession  of  a  soul.  The  Moslem  has  his  own  Eden.  He 
may  have  his  own  particular  houri  to  crown  with  flowers  his 
noble  brow,  or  give  him  those  sensuous  delights  which  belong 
to  the  Orient  of  the  seventh  heaven.  But  there  is  no  enjoyment 
in  the  future,  after  death,  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  harem,  in 
some  wondrous  mystery,  may  not  join  in  the  destiny  of  their  lord. 
The  women  are  not  debarred  from  the  pious  ceremonies  of  the 
mosque,  like  the  women  of  other  countries,  e.xcept  that  they  are 
restricted  to  the  latticed  galleries,  like  those  for  women  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Therefore,  intuitively  they  are  religious. 
In  the  seclusion  of  their  homes,  and  in  the  humility  of  their 
lives,  from  beneath  the  veil  with  which  they  conceal  themselves, 
they  pass  with  prayer  into  the  presence  of  Allah. 


540  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Outside  of  that  seclusion,  they  are  the  worshippers  of  Nature. 
In  this  they  copy  their  husbands  with  enthusiasm.  "  Born,"  says 
Lamartine,  "  in  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  Asia — the  sons  of 
shepherds — they  bring  with  them  into  their  very  palaces  the  mem- 
ory, the  images,  the  passions,  of  rural  nature  ;  they  love  her  too 
much  to  bedeck  her.  A  woman,  a  horse,  a  weapon,  a  fountain,  a 
tree — such  are  the  five  paradises  of  the  children  of  Othman  !" 

How  can  it  be  possible  that  so  many  kindly  compliments  are 
paid  to  the  Turkish  gentlewomen  by  those  of  her  own  sex  for  her 
courtesy,  which  is  almost  intuitive,  and  her  simplicity  of  feeling 
and  sincerity  of  good-nature,  which  give  a  double  charm  to  this 
courtesy,  if  indeed  it  be  true  that  the  harem  is  not  a  home,  but 
only  a  resort  of  sensuality  ? 

There  are  some  cases  recorded  in  the  Turkish  annals  where 
the  vanity  of  the  male  has  been  quite  conspicuous.  In  fact,  the 
systemof  polygamy  is  of  such  a  peculiar  kind  that  it  may  persuade 
the  superior  sex  to  believe  that  he  is  more  or  less  like  a  game  fowl 
in  a  barnyard  surrounded  by  his  pullets.  Much  fun  has  been  made 
of  George  the  Fourth  for  his  exquisite  vanity  in  dress  and  man- 
ner. It  is  said  that  Mahmoud  the  Second,  the  grandfather  of  the 
present  Sultan,  made  perpetual  sacrifices  before  the  altar  of  self- 
adornment.  He  even  painted  himself  white  and  red  with  costly 
cosmetics,  to  enjoy  the  admiration  of  the  ladies  of  the  seraglio; 
and  yet  this  was  the  man  who  immolated  the  Janizaries  to  reform 
the  empire  ! 

Considering  the  many  changes  and  reforms  in  this  empire, 
what  may  we  not  expect  next,  in  a  realm  where  there  is  so  much 
room  for  advancement  in  the  social  virtues  and  the  economies  of 
the  state ! 


CHAPTER  XL. 

SLAVERY — ITS  CONDITIONS   AND   MITIGATIONS. 

The  slave  market  at  Constantinople  has  gone  to  the  rear.  If 
it  exist  at  all,  it  exists  in  the  mind  of  some  libelant.  It  is 
hidden  from  human  sight  in  the  city.  But  suppose  it  were  open, 
so  that  all  could  understand  it  !  It  is  not,  in  comparison  with  the 
old  slave  mart  of  America,  that  with  which  we  should  reproach 
the  Turks.  There  is  no  cruelty — no  insult  to  the  slave.  When 
the  slaves  become  members  of  the  family  into  which  they  are 
inducted,  they  are  sure  to  rise  if  they  are  worthy.  The  negroes 
in  the  old  slave  markets  of  Stamboul  sat  on  one  side  in  groups. 
The  Circassians  are,  or  were,  brought  to  Constantinople  by  their 
parents  at  their  own  voluntary  request;  and  they  had  close  apart- 
ments. They  were  not  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  the  idler  or 
the  curious.  The  Turk  himself  never  made  sport  of  the  relation 
of  slavery,  and  always  mitigated  its  severity. 

It  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  Circassian  beauties,  of  which 
there  has  been  so  much  boast,  are  all  our  fancies  picture  them. 
Those  whom  I  have  met,  and  I  have  seen  many,  freshly  brought 
by  steam  to  Constantinople  from  Circassia  at  so  much  a  head,  have 
been  degraded  by  likening  them  to  a  drove  of  cattle.  They  are 
called  Circassians,  but  since  the  Russian  conquestof  that  country 
the  greater  part  of  these  recruits  are  derived  from  inferior  tribes; 
and  therefore  their  charms  are  not  what  we  expect.  In  fact,  a  cap- 
tain of  a  Black  Sea  steamer  has  insisted  that  out  of  a  thousand 
girls  and  women  whom  he  had  carried  to  the  capital,  the  great 
majority  were  ugly,  most  of  them  half  famished,  and  all  of  them 
dirty.     Is  it  thus  that  we  are  robbed  of  our  illusions  ? 

There  is  scarcely  a  family  in  Turkey  which  has  the  means, 
that  does  not  possess  a  number  of  women  and  girl  slaves,  black 
and  white.  The  black  are  from  Central  Africa  and  Nubia;  the 
white  are  Circassians  sold  by  their  parents.  The  Circassian 
traffic  has  greatly  or  apparently  ceased.     Many  families  moved 


542  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  V. 

to  Constantinople  to  rear  their  girls  for  this  condition.  I  do  not 
believe  that  there  is  now  any  public  market  for  slaves.  There  is 
no  selling  at  the  bazaars,  as  there  used  to  be.  Still  they  are 
bought  and  sold,  and  the  authorities  very  likely  know  how  and 
where,  and  regulate  the  traffic.  The  price  varies  with  the  beauty. 
The  ungainly  are  used  for  domestic  work.  The  beauties  are  edu- 
cated. Besides,  they  learn  to  sing  and  dance  and  to  become  agree- 
able. Each  wife  of  the  Sultan  is  a  slave.  When  she  becomes  a 
mother  she  is  raised  to  the  rank  of  cadina;  but  never  to  the  rank 
of  wife.  Those  who  are  not  cadinas  or  wives  in  the  Turkish 
harem,  are  known  as  odalisques.  When  they  are  favorites,  they 
are  called  ikbal.  The  slave  men  do  the  cooking;  the  slave  women 
the  housework.  The  Sultan,  properly,  has  no  wife  or  wives. 
His  dignity  is  too  great  to  allow  him  to  enter  into  any  matrimo- 
nial relation.  He  has  a  numerous  harem;  and  among  them  are 
gradations  of  rank.  From  four  to  seven  of  the  more  favored  take 
the  title  of  kadin,  or  lady.  These  have  a  separate  establishment 
and  some  precedence. 

In  the  Imperial  family  the  princesses  choose  their  own  hus- 
bands, or  the  Sultan  does  for  them.  They  generally  choose 
some  one  about  the  palace,  or  a  young  bey  of  good  repute. 
Whether  the  young  bey  likes  it  or  not,  he  is  not  permitted  to 
show  his  displeasure.  If  he  does,  he  is  exiled.  It  is  said  that  the 
princesses  like  the  soldiers  best;  and  the  soldier-husbands  must 
behave  with  prudence;  otherwise  they  will  be  discarded.  These 
husbands  are  more  enslaved,  in  fact,  than  the  actual  slaves. 

Moft  of  the  harems,  and  especially  those  of  the  Sultan,  are 
shut  in  by  high  walls.  The  doors  are  never  locked.  The  bed,  with 
some  exceptions,  where  European  habits  have  been  introduced, 
consists  of  a  small  mattress,  laid  on  the  floor — sometimes  several 
mattresses.  In  the  morning  early — for  the  Turk  rises  early — these 
are  taken  out  and  placed  in  the  closet.  There  is  not  much  to 
relieve  the  eye  or  the  fancy  in  the  harem.  The  sons  of  promi- 
nent Pashas  and  others  when  they  reach  fourteen  years,  demand 
an  odalisque.  She  is  generally  selected  from  the  harem  of  the 
father.  She  is  then  freed  with  honor,  and  the  moment  a  child  is 
born  she  becomes  a  hanoum. 

The  slave  has  not  a  hard  lot.  The  child  of  the  slave  has  a 
part  of  the  inheritance  of  the  father.  More  than  half  of  the  mar- 
riages in  Turkey  are  with  the  slaves. 


PRICE  OF  SLA  VES. 


543 


There  is  much  criticism  as  to  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
harem.  It  is  supposed  to  be  the  great  obstacle  to  Turkish 
advancement.  This  statement  is  to  be  taken  not  without  stint. 
What  I  desire  to  make  clear  is,  that  the  slave  trade  is  not 
what  it  was,  and  slavery  is  not  what 't  is  represented  to  be.  When 
slaves  are  purchased,  it  is  generally  through  intermediaries.  They 
are  generally  Arab  brokers.  They  have  a  rendezvous  in  a  cer- 
tain quarter  of  some  of  the  narrow  streets  of  Pera  and  Stamboul, 
the  entrance  to  which  is  prohibited  to  all  save  the  Mussulman. 

You  ask  :     "  What  are  slaves  worth  ? "     A  white  boy  may 
cost  two  hundred  dollars,  depending   upon  his  acquirements  ;  a 
girl  under  ten,  one  hundred  dollars  ;  a  maiden  between  twelve 
and  sixteen,  if  she  be  attractive  and  can  play  on  the  zither,  brings 
from  thirty-five  hundred  to  five  thousand  dollars.     If  the  young 
woman  be  a  blonde,  with  black  eyes  and  rare  beauty  otherwise, 
she  may  bring  from  four  to  six  thousand  dollars.     An  amateur 
will  pay  double  that  for  a  choice  specimen,  well  educated  in  French 
and  other  graces.     This  tariff  by  no  means  applies  to  the  slaves 
from  Africa,  the  depots  for  whom  are  in  Scutari  and  in  the  vil- 
lages on  the  Bosporus.     The  black  slave  will  bring  ninety  dollars, 
the  black  maiden  seventy  or  seventy-five,  and  a   eunuch   from 
three  hundred  and  fifty  to  four  hundred  dollars.     In  buying  the 
slave  there  are  not  such  harrowing  details  as  we  used  to  read  in 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.    All  that  has  passed  away — if  it  ever  existed. 
The  fact  is  that  slavery  in  Turkey  is  but  a  name.    It  is  actually 
forbidden  by  law,and  although  it  still  goes  on,  the  slaves  have  noth- 
ing to  complain  of  in  Turkey.     The  white  slaves  rush  to  slavery 
as  an  alternative  from  something  else  and  worse  ;  the  black  slaves, 
however,  who  are  brought  from  Africa,  have   undergone  all  the 
tortures  which  belong  to  the  traditional  slave  trade.     The  slave 
of  the  family  may  be  looked  down  upon  as  one  of  under-condition. 
but  is  nevertheless  treated  from  infancy,  when  received,  to  old  age, 
as  one  of  the  family.     After  the  female  slave  has  worked  for 
awhile  faithfully,  say  seven  years,  she  is  nearly  always  freed  vol- 
untarily by  the  mistress  or  master  of  the  household.   This  clement 
element  illustrates  what  I  have  endeavored  to  picture — the  fidelity 
of  the  Turkish  character  to  old  ties  and  associations.     Many 
touching  stories  are  related  of  the  demeanor  and  goodness  of  the 
Turkish  women  toward  those  who  are  regarded  as  their  slaves. 
The  slave  trade  in  Africa  supplies  a  certain  portion  of  the 


544 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


market  in  Constantinople.  Its  methods  are  violent.  No  one  in 
our  day  can  defend  the  slave  trade.  The  relief  which  slavery 
gives  after  the  trade  is  over,  may  be  a  compensation  for  the  cruel 
barbarism  which  makes  slavery  possible  within  the  domain  of 
Africa.  If  the  truth  were  known,  the  insurrection  of  the  Soudan 
was  an  insurrection  of  the  slave-dealers.  The  attempt  to  suppress 
slavery  in  Africa  was  like  the  attempt  to  prohibit  commerce. 
Even  Gordon  desisted  from  the  policy  of  its  suppression.  In  fact, 
he  asked  that  his  former  Bey,  Zebehr,  who  was  king  of  the  slave- 
traders,  might  be  appointed  Governor-General  of  the  Soudan. 
The  truth  is  :  that  in  these  Oriental  countries  slavery  has  not 
the  same  meaning  that  it  had  in  Brazil,  Cuba  or  America.  The 
ideal  of  the  African,  if  he  has  any,  is  immunity  from  all  sorts  of 
labor  ;  and  if  he  be  thrown  on  his  own  resources,  he  falls  into  a 
bottomless  pit. 

In  the  Orient  the  slave  prefers  always  to  remain  with  his  mas- 
ter, if  his  master  be  a  Mahometan  ;  for  he  is  placed  upon  an  equal 
social  footing  sometimes  with  the  family.  Sometimes  a  slave  is 
sold  from  hand  to  hand,  and  from  Timbuctoo  to  Algiers,  Zanzi- 
bar or  Arabia,  until  he  reaches  the  Constantinople  market 
through  many  journeys,  after  which  slavery  is  a  positive  blessing. 


CHAPTER  XLl. 

l'eNFANT   terrible   TURK — EDUCATION   OF  CHILDREN. 

The  Turk  is  fond  of  water  from  his  very  birth.  He  is  at  no 
time  a  bibber  of  wine.  He  is  positively  fond  of  his  bath.  He 
begins  when  young  to  take  his  ablutions  many  times  a  day  and 
under  every  circumstance,  especially  before  prayer  and  before  he 
enters  the  mosque. 

As  with  the  usage  of  the  bath,  the  mode  of  dressing  the 
infant  Turk  follows  it  into  childhood.  It  cOrves  its  tiny  ex- 
tremities in  youth  and  at  maturity,  and  until  old  age.  Carlyle 
has  shown  what  everlasting  things  depend  upon  the  dressing  of  a 
human  being.  How  then  are  the  infantry  of  Turkey  dressed  ? 
It  is  enough  to  siy  that  the  legs  and  hands  —in  fact,  the  entire 
child — is  enwrapped.  A  portion  of  the  wrapping-cloth  exceeds  the 
length  of  the  babe.  The  little  creature  is  folded,  and  enfolded, 
and  re-enfolded,  and  sometimes  so  tightly  that  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  is  stopped  and  the  baby's  face  turns  blue!  If  the 
mother  be  loving,  or  the  nurse  kind,  this  dressing  is  changed 
frequently.  The  little  one  is  refreshed  by  this  renewal.  A  change 
twice  a  day  of  three  long  strips  of  cloth  is  reckoned  suitable 
relief  in  ordinary  families;  it  is  only  in  a  well-to-do  family  that 
the  encasement  is  less  painful.  This  swathing  process  is  so 
peculiar  as  to  tend  to  shape  the  legs  of  the  mature  Turk  to  re- 
semble the  crescent,  which  is  the  emblem  of  growth  and  of  Turkey. 
Moreover,  the  tiny  baby  Turk  wears  a  bonnet.  It  is  of  a  gay 
color,  generally  the  Prophet's  favorite  hue — green.  This  bonnet 
is  worn  by  both  sexes.  Upon  it  is  set  sometimes  a  blue  gem,  say 
a  turquoise.  Sometimes  a  piece  of  garlic  is  hung  upon  it,  to  keep 
off  the  evil  eye  of  jealous  visitors.  Thus  accoutred,  the  little 
Turk  passes  the  boundary  of  the  "  professional  "  who  presides  at 
its  birth,  into  the  grand  domain  where  the  nurse  rules  supreme. 

Among  the  Christians  in  the  East,  the  nurse  is  not  so  impor- 
tant as  with  the  Mahometans.    With  the  latter,  she  is  sacred.   She 

545 


546  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

ranks  after  the  mother.  She  is  like  the  old  African  **  Aunty  "  of 
the  South.  If  the  nurse  have  children  of  her  own,  they  are  styled 
the  "  milk  brothers  and  sisters"  of  her  adopted  nursling.  Even 
at  the  palace  of  the  Sultan,  the  nurse  who  nourishes  a  prince  or 
princess  has  golden  opportunities  of  advancement.  She  secures 
her  own  and  her  children's  welfare  for  life.  She  is  loaded  with 
presents.  These  presents  differ  in  value,  according  to  the  means 
of  the  master,  and  are  given  on  every  possible  occasion.  When 
the  child  says  "baba!  "  or  "  father; "  when  it  has  its  first  tooth  ; 
when  its  birthday  comes  round;  and  when  it  makes  its  first  step — 
the  nurse  has  presents.  It  is  the  same  at  Bairam,  the  festal  Ma- 
hometan season;  and  thus  upon  every  slight  occasion  presents 
rain  down  from  father,  mother,  grandparents,  uncles  and  aunts. 

If  the  parents  are  wealthy,  the  nurse's  duty  is  limited.  It 
consists  simply  in  feeding  the  baby;  for  an  odalisque — one  of  the 
women  of  the  harem — performs  the  duty  of  caring  for  the  child. 
After  the  fatigues  of  nursing,  she  regales  herself  with  a  narghile; 
for  smoking  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  ruder  sex  in  Turkey. 

In  addition  to  these  two  aids  of  Turkish  babyhood,  in  every 
well-regulated  home  a  servant  or  two  have  charge  of  the  washing 
and  cleaning  of  the  nursery  and  linen. 

As  soon  as  the  child  is  old  enough  to  be  able  to  take  ordinary 
nourishment,  it  is  taken  from  the  nurse  and  put  into  the  hands  of 
the  oldest  male  servant.  If  the  child  be  a  boy,  this  servant  is  to 
be  the  tutor  until  the  boy  is  sent  to  school.  The  boy  remains  in 
his  hands  for  about  five  years.  It  is  here  that  he  obtains  his  first 
moral  impressions. 

As  a  general  rule,  these  servants  or  slaves  to  whom  Mussul- 
man children  are  entrusted  are  not  the  most  cultivated  or  liberal 
among  the  Moslems.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  little  Turk 
becomes  imbued  with  the  prejudices  of  this  guardian,  who  has  not 
learned  to  leaven  his  faith  with  toleration,  as  do  the  more 
enlightened  of  his  race.  No  wonder  if  the  child  be  taught  to 
despise  those  not  of  his  race  or  of  the  creed  of  the  Prophet.  So 
far  as  my  observation  goes,  this  hatred  of  other  than  Mahometans 
has  died  out  considerably  since  I  visited  here  in  a.  d.  185  i  ;  and  even 
since  I  was  here  in  a.  d.  1881.  It  is  said  that  the  first  time  the  child 
sees  a  Christian  or  a  Jew  passing  by,  he  is  taught  to  spit  or  throw 
water  on  him,  as  a  sign  that  he  repels  the  contact  with  such  an 
unbeliever.     It  is  said  that  he  is  thus  early  taught  to  hate  all 


COURTESIES  OF  CHILDREN. 


547 


"giaours"  or  infidels.  This  may  be  the  case  among  the  lowest 
classes  of  Moslems;  and  where  the  windows  of  the  houses  which 
are  covered  with  Venetian  blinds  or  screens  may  hide  the  servant 
and  child,  it  may  be  done  with  impunity,  and  as  a  sort  of  sport  for 
the  ignorant  attaches  of  the  household. 

My  observation  does  not,  however,  lie  in  this  direction.  Last 
Friday  I  visited  the  "Sweet  Waters  of  Asia,"  across  the  Bosporus. 
The  hanounis  bring  their  families — odalisques,  children,  servants 
and  slaves,  black  and  white.  Children  by  the  score  play  around 
upon  the  green  under  the  plane-trees  near  the  "Sweet  Waters" 
— called  sweet,  because  not  brackish.  Yellow  maize  on  the  cob, 
smoking  hot,  is  sold  by  itinerant  venders  to  the  groups  of  families, 
who  eat  it  off  the  ear.  Confections  and  cakes  in  every  shape 
are  sold,  along  with  all  the  toys  that  ever  Caleb  Plummer  fancied. 
•  No  one  complains  that  we  giaours  gaze  upon  this  Moslem 
holiday.  The  women  peep  out  from  under  their  cambric  wraps, 
quite  pleased  to  be  gazed  upon.  They  move  around  on  the  green- 
sward in  their  ?\\\itnferidjies.  They  no  longer  wear  the  slipshod 
yellow  slipper  as  of  old.  Even  with  the  high-heeled  French  shoe 
they  do  not  walk  gracefully.  Now  and  then  you  find  one  in 
superb  costume,  perhaps  a  golden-haired  blonde,  and  with  a  style 
of  walking  as  elegant  as  that  of  the  belles  of  Belgrade  or 
Bucharest. 

But  the  children;  well — I  happened  to  look  earnestly  at  a 
handsome  boy  of  about  five  years  and  a  little  girl  of  the  same 
age.  Their  portraits  I  cannot  get;  but  I  present,  nearly  as  may 
be,  pictures  representing  their  dresses.  They  were  in  a  bevy  of 
children,  near  a  large  group  of  women,  seated,  as  usual,  upon  the 
ground.  The  boy  was  handsomely  attired  in  fancy  garments,  in 
which  silk  braid  and  gold  play  a  part.  He  exhibited  no  distrust 
or  dislike,  but  with  elegant  grace  he  gave  me  the  salaam  of  the 
East,  or,  rather,  of  the  dervishes  of  the  East.  The  higher  person 
in  rank  receives  the  lowest  obeisance.  The  boy  who  saluted  us 
touched  the  earth  with  his  right  hand,  brought  it  up  to  his  mouth, 
and  then  tipped  his  forehead.  It  is  a  courtesy  which,  from  a  child, 
says: 

*'  From  the  earth  our  mother,  I  gave  you  my  heart,  and  with 
my  hand  to  my  brow,  intelligently  I  salute  you  !" 

I  was  surprised  and  pleased  with  the  young  gentleman's 
exquisite  taste.     His  female  relatives  almost  dropped  their  yash- 


548  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

males,  and  gave  a  laughing  salutation  to  my  wife — but  not  to  me 
of  the  debarred  sex.  They  were  pleased  with  the  delight  afforded 
by  their  children. 

Wandering  about  the  grounds,  I  found  seated  by  some  pro- 
vender a  little  hunchback  boy  whose  family  had  wandered  off  on 
a  promenade  by  these  "  Sweet  Waters  "  of  Asia.  Was  he  dis- 
trustful ?  Not  a  whit.  Our  kavass — the  Mahomedan  guard  of 
the  Legation — asked  him  to  sing  his  prayers  for  us;  and  he  raised 
his  ^'■La-Il- Allah  !  "  with  a  plaintive  and  sweet  voice.  He  seemed 
happy  in  his  effort  to  please. 

So  that  I  doubt  the  universal  application  of  the  statement, 
that  the  Turkish  children  are  all  trained  to  show  signs  of  hatred 
to  those  of  other  faiths.  I  have  yet  to  see  one  unruly  movement 
or  ugly  grimace  from  a  Moslem  child.  Near  our  Legation  at 
Therapia  there  are  barracks.  Several  families  live  near  by — 
families  of  soldiers.  The  soldiers  as  well  as  the  children  salute 
the  Minister  every  day,  and  if  I  meet  one  of  them  in  the  city,  the 
courtesy  I  describe  is  made  with  smiling  recognition. 

It  may  be  noticed,  from  some  of  the  illustrations,  that  the  Turk 
is  not  subject  to  the  standard  or  to  the  fancies  of  Europeans.  He 
has  his  own  tests  in  his  ways  of  dressing,  as.  well  as  in  the  colors 
and  the  pattern  of  the  material  which  he  uses  for  that  purpose; 
so  much  so  that  in  Germany,  Austria,  France  and  England  there 
are  factories  where  articles  are  made  specially  for  consumption  in 
the  Orient.  The  Turk  buys  colored  calico  of  bright  yellowish  or 
pink  color,  or  with  such  a  combination  of  colors  that"  Joseph's 
coat  only  can  rival,  and  that  no  European  would  use,  except  for 
window  curtains.  He  prefers  wide  stripes  to  any  other  pattern. 
He  never  imitates  the  Christian  mode  of  dressing,  so  long  as  he 
can  help  it.  It  irked  the  Turkish  soldier  at  first  to  wear  the  French 
uniform.  Thus,  long  dresses  are  worn  by  young  girls,  and  short 
ones  by  babies,  whereas  it  is  usual  among  Christians  to  dress  the 
baby,  up  to  the  time  he  steps  about,  with  long  dresses;  and  as  soon 
as  he  is  able  to  walk,  with  short  ones.  The  little  Turkish  girl, 
when  en  promenade,  has  the  aspect  of  a  little  old  lady,  except  in 
her  infantile  features.  The  only  article  of  dress  which  the  Turk 
adopts  from  the  Christian — and  that  is  of  recent  occurrence — is 
the  shoe  or  boot.  This  they  adopt  as  more  comfortable  in  loco- 
motion ;  though  that  is  a  matter  of  doubt. 

The  shape  and  the  style  which  have  prevailed  in  manufacturing 


**  YOUNG  TURKEY"  MUST  BE  AMUSED. 


549 


the  clothes  to  be  seen  in  these  illustrations,  indicate  something 
different  from  that  which  is  commonly  known  everywhere  outside 
of  Moslem  countries.  Some  Turks  consider  it  a  religious  obliga- 
tion to  differ  thus  as  to  their  modes  of  dress.  They  never  put  a  hat 
on  their  heads.  Even  the  women  have  their  ^^  bashliks,"  approach- 
ing to  what  one  may  call  a  hat,  but  it  is  a  different  thing.  It  is 
called  by  another  name.  A  hat  would  be  a  ^^  shapka  j'*  and  the 
name  given  to  this  head-covering  means  a  bonnet,  or,  rather,  a  cap. 

These  characteristics  of  the  Turk — and  of  his  chief,  the  Sultan 
himself,  who  wears,  like  all  his  subjects,  the  fez  cap — go  to  show 
that  they  are  misjudged  greatly  from  childhood  up.  If  indeed, 
as  is  said,  the  child  is  taught  by  the  servant  some  naughty  words, 
and  incited  to  hurl  them  at  the  infidel  as  a  part  of  his  *'  fun,"  or 
that  of  his  nurse  or  servant,  I  am,  as  I  said  before,  in  ignorance 
of  the  fact.  There  is  much  written,  and  truly,  about  the  irrever- 
ent audacity  of  Young  America.  He  will  cry  out,  "  Go  up, 
Bald-Head  !  "  and  add  defiantly,  •'  Now,  bring  on  your  Bears!  " 
Compared  with  the  "  bad  boy  "  of  other  lands — of  which  the 
American  boy  is  a  representative,  as  I  myself  from  experience 
know — the  young  Turk  is  as  a  cooing  dove  to  a  malicious  sparrow, 
or  to  a  loquacious  jackdaw. 

Of  course  all  children  must  have  amusement.  If  it  be  not 
tendered,  they  will  break  out  into  mischief.  They  must  also  have 
variety  in  their  entertainment.  They  must  be  petted.  The  phil- 
ology of  the  word  ^^ pet"  signifies  it.  A  child  soon  tires  of  one 
kind  of  diversion.  He  must  find  something  else.  The  Turkish 
child  is  no  exception.  Whether  running  about,  as  I  see  him  here, 
in  his  little  baggy  clothes,  over  which  is  a  sort  of  dressing-gown 
padded  with  cotton  made  out  of  cheap  prints,  highly  colored, 
generally  red  ;  or  munching  sweetmeats  in  his  satins  and  silks, 
tassels  and  gold  laces,  with  his  little  cane,  strutting  by  the  side  of 
his  veiled  mother,  over  the  green  at  the  "  Sweet  Waters  "  near 
the  Palace  of  Ghiocksouyee  ;  whether  he  be  rich  or  poor,  of 
crockery  or  porcelain — he  is  of  the  same  **  earth  earthy  "  as  the 
American  bad  or  good  boy. 

He  is,  perhaps,  more  plastic  in  the  hands  of  servant  or  slave. 
This  personage  is  often  put  to  the  use  of  all  his  wits  to  make  up 
stories  wonderful  enough  to  fill  the  imagination  of  these  inchoate 
Sinbads  and  Haroun  Al-Raschids— these  children  of  Bajazet  and 
Suleiman.     Generally  such  stones  refer  to  a  boy  or  girl  of  their 


550 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


own  age  as  the  hero  or  heroine.  Perhaps  the  hero  is  some  Arab 
cowboy  of  the  desert  or  plain  !  In  these  narratives,  there  are 
battles  with  the  enemies  of  the  Faith,  in  which  millions  of  Chris- 
tians are  slain  by  a  handful  of  Moslems.  The  hero  has  slaugh- 
tered most  of  them.  Robberies,  mcendiarisms,  murders  and 
piracies  are  committed  by  the  enemy  of  the  heroic  Mussulman, 
who  cuts  them  down  with  his  crescent-shaped  cimeter.  In  these 
stories  the  bad  Unbeliever  is  punished  ultimately  by  the  good 
Moslem.  The  tale  winds  up  with  the  immunity  of  the  true 
believer  ;  nay,  with  a  reward  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
enemies  killed  ;  a  reward  in  a  paradise  of  rare  beauty  and 
delight  ! 

With  such  stories,  we  do  not  wonder  that  the  Turkish  child 
should  grow  into  a  bigoted  man.  We  do  wonder  that  in  his  con- 
tact with  other  nationalities,  and  the  constant  encroachment  on 
Turkish  domain  in  Africa  and  Europe,  that  when  he  comes  to 
man's  estate  his  early  training  so  little  affects  his  natural  toler- 
ance and  urbanity. 

There  is  one  occasion  on  which  the  Turkish  children  are 
taught  to  be  respectful  and  obedient ;  that  is  when  they  are 
brought  in  presence  6i  their  father  and  mother.  They  learn  to 
approach  their  parents  in  the  same  humble  attitude  as  the  serv- 
ants ;  for  instance,  as  soon  as  the  child  is  brought  in  he  must 
approach  them  with  his  hands  upon  his  stomach.  On  coming 
nearer,  he  must  take  their  hands  and  kiss  them.  After  this,  he 
must  withdraw  some  three  or  four  steps  and  stand  with  his  hands 
on  the  stomach  and  not  seat  himself  until  he  is  permitted.  On 
this  account  the  little  Turk  likes  better  to  be  with  the  servants 
than  with  his  parents. 

So  far  as  the  outward  show  may  be  proof,  there  is  no  lack  of 
love  from  the  father  to  the  child.  The  father  cares  sedulously 
for  the  child  when  it  is  sick  He  plays  with  it  when  it  is  well. 
He  carries  his  love  of  children  so  far  as  to  be  constantly  adopting 
the  children  of  others.  These  are  called  "the  children  of  the 
soul."  They  are  reared  with  the  same  tenderness  as  the  children 
of  the  household.  On  their  marriage  they  are  apportioned  with 
the  same  munificence  as  if  it  were  a  natural  instead  of  a  voluntary 
claim.  The  regard  for  the  parents  is  imperishable  in  the  Turkish 
mind.     The  Turk  will  say  to  himself  : 

"  My  wife  or  wives  may   die  ;  they  can  be  replaced.     My 


EDUCA  TION  OF  THE  CHILDREN. 


551 


children  may  perish  ;  others  may  be  born  ;  but  who  shall  restore 
to  me  my  mother  ;  for  when  she  goes,  she  is  seen  no  more  ? " 

If  the  "  child  be  father  of  the  man,"  then  the  Turkish  child 
is  not  so  bad  after  all,  considering  the  provocation  and  allure- 
ments to  be  otherwise.  In  places  where  the  Turk  does  not  min- 
gle with  those  of  other  creeds  and  nations,  he  may,  if  ignorantf  be 
haughty.  He  may,  as  child  and  man,  beat  or  abuse  with  facile 
stick  or  tongue  the  children  who  are  alien  to  the  commonwealth 
of  Islam.  He  sees  the  servants  about  him  subdued  to  the  son  of 
their  master,  and  as  he  has  no  communications  outside,  the  only 
surprise  is  that  he  does  not  become  more  absolute  and  arrogant. 
Upon  the  whole,  I  am  yet  to  meet  a  Turk  who  is  not  gentle.  He 
is  more  polite  than  the  French,  and  more  sincere  in  his  polite- 
ness. The  Turkish  peasant  is  a  good  sample  of  the  uncorrupted 
stock  ;  and  he  is  a  sober  and  simple  person.  D?.ughters  marry 
young,  and  their  housekeeping  is  a  model  of  cleanliness  compared 
with  the  squalor  and  dirt  of  other  Oriental  races  and  homes. 
Their  vices  are  from  alien  sources  ;  their  virtues  are  from  the 
teaching  of  the  Koran  ;  and  their  hospitality  and  courtesy  are 
among  these  virtues. 

It  may  be  mteresting  to  follow  the  Turkish  child  from  its  birth 
to  its  nurse,  and  from  its  nurse  to  its  attendant,  when  it  reaches 
the  third  and  most  interesting  epoch  in  its  plastic  life;  but  it  is 
more  interesting  to  solve  the  question:  "  How,  and  how  much,  is 
the  child  educated;  and  what  are  the  ceremonies  of  its  introduc- 
tion to  the  schools  of  Turkey  ?  " 

Not  until  the  child  reaches  its  sixth  year  does  this  question 
agitate  the  household.  The  father  and  mother,  in  a  preparatory 
way,  then  commence  petting  him  more  than  usual.  Small  presents 
are  given  him.  Among  other  things,  there  is -given  a  bag  with  a 
strap.  This  is  to  be  hung  on  his  shoulder.  The  bag  is  square- 
shaped.  It  is  large  enough  to  contain  his  primary  book.  This  is 
ordered  for  the  occasion. 

The  bag  and  book  are  covered  with  elaborate  embroideries. 
Arrangements  are  made  with  the  teacher  of  the  school  to  which  the 
child  is  to  go. 

The  day  on  which  to  begin  school  is  decided  upon.  It  is  a 
day  marked  with  the  whitest  stone.  It  is  a  day  of  ceremony.  No 
such  ponies  are  to  be  found  like  the  spirited  yet  gentle  iron-gray 
ponies  of  the  East.    One  of  these  is  gorgeously  caparisoned.    The 


e  c  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 


DRESSED  FOR  ITS  FIRST  SCHOOL. 


55, 


cloths  are  covered  with  gold  embroideries  of  rarest  skill.  The 
pupils  of  the  school  are  advised  of  the  g^eat  event,  and  of  the 
advent  of  the  new  comer.  These  pupils  are  arrayed  in  their 
"store  clothes." 

Our  photographs  represent  some  children  in  this  holiday  attire. 
These  children  are  taken  to  the  house  of  the  budding  scholar.  A 
priest  makes  a  short  prayer.  The  child  is  placed  on  the  pony; 
and  the  pupils,  male  and  female,  are  formed  in  double  line.  The 
procession  moves.  It  sings  hymns  as  it  moves.  The  little  horse, 
with  the  little  hero  of  the  day,  follows.  The  pony  feels  the  impor- 
tance of  the  occasion.  The  photograph  shows  also  how  the  child 
is  dressed  in  a  costume  especially  made  for  the  occasion.  If  it  be 
a  boy,  the  costume  is  that  of  a  Turkish  colonel  of  the  army  or  a 
commodore  of  the  navy;  or  sometimes  in  the  costume  of  an 
Ulema  or  law  interpreter. 

The  Spanish  nation  has  many  traits  of  an  Oriental  kind.  Perhaps 
they  were  transmitted  by  contact  with  their  Moorish  neighbors  in 
the  earlier  years  of  the  peninsular  history.  It  was  only  the  other 
day  that  the  son  of  Alfonso  XII.,  a  little  over  one  year  of  age,  was 
presented  by  the  Tailor's  Guild  of  Madrid  with  a  uniform  of  a 
titular  grade  in  the  army.  The  gold  lace  of  the  suit,  the  minia- 
ture chapeau,  the  plume,  the  aigrette  of  diamonds  and  the  tiny 
sword  made  the  little  one  a  droll  doll.    Such  is  royalty. 

In  Turkey,  if  the  costume  be  for  a  little  girl,  it  is  a  fancy 
one,  which  is  neither  Turkish  nor  European.  She  wears  a 
great  profusion  of  artificial  flowers  and  gay  feathers.  Thus  the 
child  makes  its  entry  into  the  school,  or,  rather,  into  its  new 
world. 

It  may  be  understood  from  the  preceding  that  among  Mussul- 
mans, in  the  primary  schools  both  girls  and  boys  study  together. 
The  teachers  are  taken  from  the  priesthood  and  from  the  gradu- 
ates of  the  theological  universities.  They  must  have  learned  to 
read  the  Koran,  which  is  written  in  Arabic,  and  which  all  good 
Mussulmans  learn.  This  class  of  teachers  are  consequently 
stringent  religionists.  Some  are  quite  fanatical.  If  the  pupil 
does  not  acquire  much  discipline  or  information  pertaining  to 
modern  material  progress,  it  is  because  the  twig  is.  not  bent  in 
that  direction. 

Pertinent  to  this,  let  me  say,  that  never  does  our  Legation 
steam  launch  stop  at  any  of  the  wharves  between  Constantinople 


554 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


TURKISH  MECHANICAL  GENIUS. 


555 


and  Cavak,  near  the  Bosporus  mouth,  that  it  is  not  observed  by 
the  children.  They  gather  about  it  in  crowds.  They  quit  their 
fishing  to  look  at  it.  They  scarcely  give  its  passengers  a  glance 
or  smile.  They  care  not  for  the  flag  of  our  beloved  land.  They, 
however,  peep  down  into  the  engine-room,  not  exactly  with  sur- 
prise, for  a  Turk  is  not  supposed,  even  in  youth,  to  show  surprise. 
The  boy  scrutinizes  its  stern,  to  see  the  play  of  the  screw  propel- 
ler, which  the  clear  water  of  the  Bosporus  displays.  Thereupon, 
there  follows  much  sapient  discussion.  Are  these  urchins  of  the 
quay  inglorious  Newtons,  Fitches  and  Fultons,  Morses,  Edisons 
and  Ericsons,  that  they  take  such  a  sedate  interest  in  the  myste- 
ries of  physical  science,  when  harnessed  as  forces,  upon  this  ele- 
ment, so  constantly  dedicated  here  to  the  oar  ? 

I  have  said  that  the  Turk  never  shows  surprise,  even  if  he 
feels  it.  Dr.  Washburn,  president  of  the  Robert  (American)  Col- 
lege, illustrates  this  point  by  an  anecdote.  He  brought  here  from 
America  one  of  Edison's  phonographs.  He  exhibited  it  to  a 
company  of  Turks.  He  vociferates  into  its  orifice.  The 
machine  grinds  out  of  its  vocal  tin-foil  much  talk  in  English,  in 
its  squeaky  way.  It  is  no  marvel  to  the  company.  There  is  not 
an  eyebrow  raised  in  wonder;  not  a  question  asked.  When  it 
talks  Turkish,  ah  !  Then,  how  they  marvel  I  How  could  it 
learn  the  Turkish  language  so  soon  ! 

In  one  of  my  calls  the  other  day  upon  a  leading  Turkish 
gentleman  of  education  and  refinement,  I  had  a  conversation  as 
to  Eastern  and  Western  modes  of  thought  and  tuition.  He  said 
to  me  : 

"  Excellency  !  I  think  there  are  modes  of  good-nature,  by 
which  the  ends  of  discipline  and  justice  are  attained." 

I  asked  him  to  explain  his  remark;  he  replies: 

**  Oh,  Excellency  !  you  are  accounted  a  man  of  good-humor, 
and  evidently  it  is  a  part  of  your  education." 

I  rejoin,  giving  him  back — for  he  was  a  Minister  and  a  Pasha 
— the  usual  courtesy: 

"Excellency  !  the  forum  in  which  my  good-nature  has  been 
tried  has  no  counterpart  in  the  East.  A  parliamentary  body  has 
its  gravity,  ever  drawing  one  to  itself  as  to  an  arena  of  wrangle 
and  not  of  good-humor,  and  yet — ,"  I  added,  "good-humor  has 
its  uses  even  in  deliberative  bodies." 

As  the  Turks  are  proud  of  being  accounted  just,  I  add : 


556  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKS  Y. 

"You  know  that  the  root  of  the  English  word  'justice'  or 

*  juice, '  is  the  word  from  the  Greek  which  means  '  moisture  '  or 

*  humor.'  " 

Here  he  exhibited  unwonted  surprise.  He  was  of  Kurd 
descent.  He  had  the  warm  blood  of  Saladin  the  Saracen.  I 
resume: 

"  Justice  is  like  rain — or  Jus,  i.  e.,  juice.  It  falls  upon  all 
alike — the  just  and  unjust.  This  idea  and  its  philology  are  of  the 
Orient.  Almost  all  moral  humor,  like  the  fable,  parable  or  story,^ 
comes  from  the  East." 

"  Ah,"  he  responds  quietly,  '*  the  West  gives  us  steam,  tele- 
graph, telephone  and  a  hundred  other  evidences  of  growth  in 
experimental  science;  and  thus  it  compensates  us  for  what  we 
give  to  them  in  moral  and  religious  truths.  The  East  and 
West  are  necessary  to  each  other." 

This  man,  as  I  say,  was  a  Kurd.  He  was  a  descendant  of 
the  tribe  from  and  through  which  Xenophon  made  his  celebrated 
retreat  of  the  ten  thousand.  He  is  now  the  able  and  courteous 
Foreign  Minister — Said  Pasha. 

I  have  yet  to  see  the  Turkish  man  or  child  here — for  I  am 
not  speaking  of  the  Turkish  woman — who  did  not  seem  pervious 
to  good-humor. 

It  is  a  mistake  that  the  Turk  is  always  too  grave  for  a  laugh. 
The  children  especially  are  full  of  sportive  ways.  The  men  are 
not  devoid  of  that  simplicity  which  is  easily  amused.  Is  it 
because  they  are  fond  of  children  ?  At  every  turn,  we  see  here 
the  father  playing  with  his  young  ones,  or  petting  them.  He 
makes  them  his  companions.  Indeed,  the  father  seems  to  be 
devotedly  attached  to  the  little  ones,  whose  "  flitcherin  naise  and 
glee"  is  the  echo  of  his  own  hilarity. 

The  schools  here  do  not  afford  the  opportunities  for  mischief 
which  are  recorded  in  English  novels  about  English  boys,  and 
which  make  so  many  paragraphs  in  American  journals. 

The  studies  in  the  primary  schools  are  not  very  complicated. 
On  the  contrary,  they  are  primitive. 

A  primary  school  is  composed  of  one  or  two  rooms  or  "  holes 
in  the  wall,"  round  which  there  are  large  divans  against  three  of 
the  sides  of  the  room.  The  seat  of  the  teacher  is  against  the 
fourth  side.  The  pupils  sit  cross-legged  in  a  line  on  the  divans. 
They  hold  their  books  on  their  knees,  and  recite  all  at  the  same 


ORIGIN  OF  OUR  ARITHMETIC. 


557 


time,  in  a  loud,  shrill  voice,  so  as  to  form  a  sort  of  monotone, 
producing  an  indescribable  cacophony,  not  unlike  the  horrid 
music  of  these  shores.  They  learn  grammar,  and  the  four  rules  of 
arithmetic.  After  they  are  able  to  read  from  the  Koran  a  little, 
they  take  up  writing.  There  being  no  writing-tables  or  desks, 
they  hold  their  copy-books  in  their  hands.  This  is  all  the  edu- 
cation they  receive  in  the  primary  schools. 

As  the  Arab  gave  us  numeration — in  fact,  arithmetic,  as  well 
as  kindred  modes  of  calculation — Young  America  may  not  be 
averse  to  doing  one  of  the  sums  I  copy  from  a  primer  in  the 


\oV\^ 


A  SUM  IN  TURKISH  ARITHMETIC. 


Turkish  script.     At  least,  it  is  a  curious  "  sum  "  to  look  at,  if  it 
cannot  be  "done." 

A  few  years  ago  the  Sultan  gave  the  matter  of  education  his 
serious  attention.  Much  progress  has  been  made  toward  put- 
ting the  primary  schools  on  a  better  footing.  Besides  the  primarj', 
there  are  few  superior  schools,  except  the  military  and  naval 
schools  and  the  school  of  medicine,  established  in  a.  d.  1830. 
These  "high  schools"  were  established  some  forty  years  ago;  so 
that,  outside  of  these  government  and  primary  schools,  there  is  no 
other  education  to  be  had.  Wealthy  men  hire  European  teachers 
to  assist  their  children  in  the  study  of  languages  and  modern 


558  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

science.  But  the  common  people,  not  being  pecuniarily  able, 
satisfy  themselves  with  what  is  obtained  at  the  primary  schools. 
If  one  is  astonished  that  the  governing  class  here  generally  speak 
French,  and  often  English,  Greek,  Italian  and  German,  it  may 
be  stated  that  the  Turk,  like  the  Russian,  has  an  aptitude  for 
tongues.     He  makes  his  necessity  the  mother  of  his — study. 

The  distribution  of  the  prizes  at  the  model  preparatory  school 
of  Bechiktash  has  just  taken  place,  in  the  presence  of  a  grand  con- 
course of  people.  The  audience  was  principally  composed  of  the 
best  society  of  Moslems.  This  splendid  establishment  was  insti- 
tuted by  the  present  Sultan.  It  is  under  his  patronage.  It  has 
justified  the  hopes  that  were  conceived  at  its  creation.  About 
thirty  of  the  pupils  received  certificates  of  scholarship.  These 
permit  them  to  enter  higher  schools.  The  school  of  Bechiktash 
thus  gives  proof  of  the  progress  accomplished  within  a  few  years 
in  primary  instruction. 

During  the  reign  of  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid,  some  thirty-five 
years  ago,  an  effort  was  made  to  extend  the  normal  school  system 
throughout  the  empire,  but  without  success.  It  is  only  during 
the  reign  of  the  present  Sultan  that  the  matter  of  education  has 
been  earnestly  taken  up.  In  the  course  of  eight  or  nine  years,  the 
administration  of  public  instruction  has  established  throughout 
the  empire,  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa,  388  primary  and  nor- 
mal schools.  There  were  in  this  year,  a.  d.  1886,  20,093  students. 
Besides  these,  there  are  80  primary  and  normal  schools  in  Con- 
stantinople, in  which  there  are  5,401  students,  out  of  which  275 
are  in  the  gratuitous  school — the  only  one  in  existence  in  the 
empire — and  634  are  in  private  schools.  In  all,  I  should  say 
that  there  are  some  30,000  pupils  in  Turkish  schools  being 
gratuitously  educated.     The  number  is  increasing  every  day. 

The  instruction  in  these  schools  differs  little  from  that  which 
was  formerly  given.  The  programme  of  the  studies,  divided  into 
four  years,  indicates  the  course  of  studies  for  each  year  or  class. 

Here  is  the  course  of  studies  in  primary  schools  : 

First  class,  or  year :  Alphabet,  Turkish,  six  times  a  week; 
Koran,  six  times  a  week  and  prayers;  and  Turkish  lectures,  five 
times  a  week;  and  moral  stories. 

Second  class,  or  year :  Koran,  six  times  a  week,  and  memoriz- 
ing it;  religious  precepts,  twice  a  week  and  the  reading  of  a 
primer;  addition,  once  a  week;  and  writing. 


COMPULSOR  Y  EDUCA  TION. 


559 


Third  class,  or  year :  Koran,  six  times  a  week,  and  explana- 
tions; Turkish  grammar,  twice  a  week;  four  rules  of  arithmetic 
and  proofs,  twice  a  week;  and  different  kinds  of  writing. 

Fourth  class,  or  year :  Koran,  six  times  a  week;  geography, 
once  a  week;  and  Ottoman  history,  once,  and  general  history 
twice  a  week;  orthography,  once  a  week;  and  writing,  as  well  as 
memorization  of  lessons. 

It  may  be  a  surprise,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  there  is 
compulsory  education  in  Turkey.  Every  citizen  or  father  is 
compelled  to  enter  his  son's  name  for  schooling  on  reaching  the 
age  of  six  years.  If  they  can  afford  the  means,  their  children  are 
educated  at  home.  Why  should  a  citizen  of  Berlin,  London  or 
New  York  think  that  he  monopolizes  the  business  of  education  ? 
Why  should  he  look  down  upon  the  Turk  in  that  regard  ?  Even 
in  the  old  temples  of  Cairo,  while  wandering  around,  winter 
before  last,  I  heard  the  hum,  hum,  hum  of  the  schools.  It 
sounded  like  a  swarm  of  bees.  In  following  the  murmurous 
noise,  I  have  wandered  into  some  scattered  nook  of  some  temple 
of  Rameses  or  Osiris,  where  the  infantile  voices  are  heard  in 
chorus  almost  any  hour  of  the  day.  They  sit  cross-legged  with 
their  vakeer,  or  schoolmaster.  Each  child  has  a  board  on  which 
his  lesson  is  written.  This  lesson  he  screams  to  the  top  of  his 
compass.  The  hubbub  is  anything  but  agreeable;  but  the 
moment  a  stranger  enters  the  noise  becomes  that  of  boisterous 
hilarity.  The  pupils  must  recite  by  heart,  out  loud,  besides  writ- 
ing down  the  lessons. 

The  programme  of  studies  of  the  Imperial  Lyceum  includes 
the  Turkish  language,  composition  and  translation,  Turkish  his- 
tory and  literature,  Arabic  language  and  literature,  the  Persian 
language,  religious  instruction,  mathematics,  philosophy,  physics, 
history,  design,  French,  geography,  book-keeping,  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, French  caligraphy,  gymnastics  and  the  German,  English 
and  Italian  languages. 

There  are  two  schools  in  Constantinople  for  professions  and 
arts.  These  are  for  boys  as  well  as  for  girls.  These  are  of  course 
separate.  In  the  boys'  schooF  there  are  three  hundred  students, 
and  in  the  girls'  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine.  There  they  learn 
handicraft  and  trades  of  all  kinds.  There  is  also  a  superior 
school  in  prospect,  but  it  is  not  yet  in  operation. 

I  he  Lycee  Imperial  has  eight  hundred  students,  for  which  the 


560  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

annual  pay  for  boarding  students  is  $240  a  year,  while  the  day 
students  pay  about  ^55.  The  course  of  studies  in  this  is  copied 
from  the  French  schools. 

There  has  also  been  an  administrative  school  in  operation  for 
four  or  five  years.  The  curriculum  of  this  school  has  a  wide  range. 
It  includes  the  study  of  sanitation,  agriculture,  literature,  composi- 
tion and  translation,  geography,  history,  French,  chemistry,  min- 
ing, cosmography,  zoology,  government,  finance  and  economy, 
legislation,  commercial  and  international  law,  Turkish  law,  book- 
keeping, Arabic,  Persian,  engineering  and  algebra.  This  adminis- 
trative school  has  five  hundred  students.  By  administrative, 
is  meant  the  knowledge  of  the  modes  of  administering  govern- 
mental affairs.  In  this  regard  America  might  take  a  lesson  from 
Turkey.  With  the  exception  of  this  last  class  of  students — who 
are  supposed  to  be  sufficiently  posted  to  take  a  position  in  the 
government  at  once  after  they  leave  the  school — these  scholars,  as 
soon  as  they  finish  their  studies,  are  placed  in  some  bureau  of 
information,  but  without  pay.  Their  only  occupation  is  to  copy 
old  letters  which  are  of  no  use.  They  do  this  to  form  their  hand- 
writing. Their  literary  exercises,  and  principally  their  orthography, 
after  three  or  four  years  of  exercise  are  supposed  to  be  good. 
When  there  is  a  vacancy  in  the  government,  they  get  in  by  some 
hierarchical  order  or  civil-service  reform  movement,  and  advance 
little  by  little,  according  to  the  vacancies  which  occur.  It  hap- 
pens often  that  men  thus  trained  become  Foreign  Ministers,  Gov- 
ernor-Generals and  even  Cabinet  Ministers. 

In  Turkey,  any  one,  even  a  slave,  can  become  a  Marshal  of  the 
empire,  or  Grand  Vizier.  There  are  no  hereditary  or  other  titles 
of  nobility.  The  names  of  the  great  and  small  folk  are  as  simple 
as  can  be.  The  titles  of  Aga,  Effendi  and  Pasha  are  as  common 
as  our  ''colonels"  were  after  the  civil  war.  They  are  handles, 
like  our  Mister.  Some  of  these  scholars  enter  upon  a  military 
career.  Then  they  must  go  through  the  military  school.  Some 
enter  the  navy.  They  have  to  go  through  the  naval  school.  The 
fact  is,  that  every  boy  who  goes  to  school'  has  one  object  in  view: 
it  is  to  enter  into  the  employ  of  the  government. 

The  real  education  of  the  Turkish  child  commences  with  his 
babyhood.  It  follows  him  up  until  he  is  a  man,  with  his  principles 
and  conduct  more  or  less  molded  by  ignorant  servants.  These 
habits  are  more  or  less  refined  away  at  school,  and  by  contact  with 


VER  Y  CIVIL  SER  VICE.  5  6 1 

Other  boys,  who  have  something  new  to  teach  one  another.  I  am 
bound  and  glad  to  say  that,  with  all  the  disadvantages,  the  Turk 
is  naturally  good-natured  and  good-hearted.  When  he  enters 
upon  public  affairs,  he  is  the  most  generous,  the  most  polite,  and 
the  most  patient  official  to  be  found  anywhere.  He  does  not  lack 
either  in  natural  faculties  or  in  acquired  intelligence.  He  may 
be  cunnmg,  and,  as  a  general  rule,  although  slow,  he  is  well 
equipped  for  his  business. 


CHAPTER   XLII. 

MAHOMETAN    MARRIAGES   AND    THEIR   CONSEQUENCES. 

After  some  Diversions  in  my  library,  in  glancing  over  the 
marvels  of  the  thousand  and  one  adventures  of  princesses  and 
hanoums,  recorded  by  the  story-tellers  of  Bagdad,  and  minutely 
observing  the  illustrations  of  the  famous  volume,  I  take  down 
the  heavy  tome  of  Mahometan  law,  which  the  East  Indian  judges 
have  collated  out  of  the  Koran  and  customs  of  Mahometan 
countries.  As  the  constant  question  about  the  Orient  is  that  of 
the  relation  of  the  sexes,  I  resolved  to  make  a  serious  "  diver- 
sion "   into  the  domain  of  matrimony. 

The  institution  of  marriage,  whether  with  one  or  more  wives,  is  at 
the  base  of  human  society.  Upon  it  rests  social  stability  and  order, 
and  domestic  felicity  and  virtue.  Under  its  wing  are  the  "  little 
ones  "  gathered,  upon  whom  depend  so  much  of  present  comfort 
for  parents  and  future  safety  for  state  and  people.  Perhaps  the 
greatest  anomaly  connected  with  human  advancement  is  the  fact 
that  Christian  nations  have  formed  their  institutions  upon  models 
of  the  Old  Testament,  with  its  patriarchs  and  tribal  system,  and 
its  Jewish  kings  and  their  Oriental  households,  and  yet  have  so 
eliminated  the  primal  feature  of  ancient  Judean  life  as  to  have 
ignored  Abraham  and  Solomon  in  their  practice  of  the  plurality 
of  wives.  Only  the  Mormon,  that  thrifty  branch  of  a  dead  stump, 
preserves  this  practice  and  peculiarity.  Like  the  Chinese  artist, 
he  faithfully  copies  the  ugly  flaw  of  the  vase,  along  with  its 
elegant  shape  and  proportion. 

Whether,  or  when,  our  "twin  relic,"  which  now  flutters  as  if 
wounded  in  a  vital  part,  shall  be  abolished  from  the  domain  of 
America,  is  a  problem  almost  as  insoluble  as  that  which  now, 
owing  to  the  presence  of  the  Ottoman  in  Europe,  vexes  the  na- 
tions over  the  conditions  of  Turkish  civilization. 

Why  is  it  that  polygamy,  as  practiced  in  the  Orient,  and  espe- 

56a 


MARRIAGE  CODE.  563 

daily  in  Turkey,  and  which,  as  most  argue,  saps  the  foundation 
of  social  vigor  and  home  content,  remains  to  this  day  ?  What  is 
there  in  its  secluded  and  strange  methods,  copied  from  the  cus- 
toms of  those  whom  we  daily  commend  for  their  faith,  devotion 
and  wisdom,  which  has  given  it  strength  to  defy  our  Federal 
government  for  thirty  years  and  more  ?  To  respond  to  these 
queries  involves  an  examination  of  the  force  of  sensual  allure- 
ments and  religious  enthusiasm.  Nowhere  can  the  many  curious 
and  peculiar  features  of  the  system  be  better  studied  than  in 
Mussulman  countries.  Polygamy  is  the  chief  one  of  these  features. 
It  has  never  been  thoroughly  investigated,  save  in  India  and  other 
Eastern  countries,  by  the  Western  jurist,  although  it  constitutes 
the  basis  of  manifold  social  relations. 

What,  then,  is  a  Mahometan  marriage  ?  It  is  well  known 
that  in  the  Orient  polygamy  is  legally  and  religiously  sanctioned. 
It  is  regulated  by  an  elaborate  code. 

Before  entering  upon  the  subject,  let  us  understand  the  points 
which  make  such  a  code  a  necessity.  Without  such  a  code  the 
followers  of  Islam  could  not  be  extricated  from  the  innumerable 
difficulties  in  which  they  are  involved  by  reason  of  polygamy. 

In  order  to  make  this  statement  clear,  it  must  be  premised  that 
the  Mahometan,  like  the  Christian  religion,  has  its  schisms. 
The  principal  and  best  defined  divisions  are  those  of  the  Sheeahs 
and  the  Soonnees.  Both  of  these  sects  recognize  the  same 
fundamental  principles  and  laws  of  Islam.  They  worship  in  the 
same  mosques,  and  perform  the  same  ceremonies.  Still,  there  is 
a  difference  in  their  marriage  code,  to  say  nothing  of  the  hatred 
existing  between  them. 

The  Soonnees  are  Turks  and  Arabs.  Of  these,  there  are 
great  numbers  in  India,  China,  Central  Asia,  and  on  the  African 
contment.  The  Sheeahs  are  Persians.  In  a.  d.  1499  they  pro- 
claimed the  Sheeah  faith  to  be  the  national  religion  of  the 
country.  Quite  a  number  professing  this  creed  are  to  be  found 
in  India.  Sheeah  means  a  troop  or  sect.  It  is  the  distinct  appel- 
lation of  the  followers  of  Ali,  or  of  all  those  who  maintain  that  he 
was  the  legitimate  Khalif  or  successor  of  Mahomet. 

Marriage  with  Mussulmans  is  merely  a  civil  transaction.  It 
has  attached  to  it  no  religious  ceremony  especially  obligatory. 
Contracts  of  marriage  cannot  be  made,  except  by  those  authorized 
by  the  code,  which  enacts  six  prohibitions.     These  are  consan- 


564  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

guinity,  fosterage,  affinity,  completion  of  number,  imprecation 
and  infidelity.  Another  and  peculiar  marriage  is  that  of  slaves, 
either  by  contract  or  by  right  of  property. 

It  is  customary  among  the  Mahometan  people  to  betroth  their 
children  in  their  infancy.  The  right  to  contract  belongs  to  the 
father,  the  paternal  grandfather,  the  master,  the  executor,  or  the 
judge.  Contracts  made  by  either  of  these  are  binding  on  the  chil- 
dren, even  if  the  marriage  has  not  been  effected  up  to  the  time 
they  attain  their  majority.  In  case  the  grandfather  and  the 
father  contract  with  two  different  persons,  the  choice  of  the  grand- 
father prevails.  But  if,  by  the  time  the'  child  attain  its  majority, 
no  contract  has  been  entered  into  by  any  of  the  persons  intiusted 
with  the  power  to  do  so,  then  their  authority  on  the  subject  is  at 
an  end.  The  consent  of  an  adult  is  thereupon  necessary  for  her 
or  his  marriage,  unless  insanity  exists.  As  to  the  slaves,  a  mas- 
ter may  contract  his  female  slave  in  marriage.  Whether  young 
or  mature,  sane  or  insane,  she  has  no  option  in  the  matter.  The 
same  rule  prevails  in  the  case  of  a  male  slave. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  formalities  with  regard  to  the  mar- 
riage of  free  men  and  women,  and  limit  the  statement  to  mature 
marriages,  or  those  not  contracted  for  those  in  infancy. 

As  soon  as  the  boy  attains  the  marriageable  age,  his  father 
and  mother  cast  about  to  find  him  a  wife.  The  mother  visits  her 
acquaintances.  She  makes  quiet  quest  into  their  harems;  for,  as 
I  have  said,  the  Turkish  houses  have  rooms  exclusively  reserved 
for  the  women. 

The  mother  may  not  allow  the  object  of  her  search  to  trans- 
pire among  her  friends  and  neighbors  ;  but  still  she  is  indefati- 
gable and  subtle  in  her  search  of  a  suitable  bride  for  her  son.  At 
length,  and  after  much  maternal  anxiety,  she  finds  what  seems  to 
be  the  actual  of  her  ideal. 

She  reports  the  fact  to  her  husband.  She  details  to  him  the 
particular  graces  of  her  choice.  Then,  if  the  family  to  which  the 
elect  belongs  suits  the  husband,  and  the  "  bill  of  particulars  "  is 
satisfactory,  and  if  the  accomplishments  of  the  girl  are  approved, 
the  "  managing  "  mother  arranges  a  party  to  the  Turkish  bath — 
for  the  bath  is  an  institution  in  Oriental  realms,  and  almost  a  part 
of  the  devotion  of  the  faithful.  There  the  future  bride  is  to  be  the 
principal  object  of  attention.  There  her  future  mother-in-law  is 
to  ascertain  whether  or  not  the  girl  has  any  constitutional  defects. 


EXAMINATION  OF  THE  BRIDE  AT  THE  BATH.       565 

Sir  Thomas  More,  before  composing  his  "  Utopia,"  must  have 
studied  this  custom  of  the  Orient  ;  for  he  wrote  that  it 
seemed  strange  to  the  Utopians  that  in  other  countries  great  cau- 
tion was  displayed  in  buying  a  horse  or  other  aiiimal,  so  as  to 
ascertain  whether  it  were  sound  and  healthy,  and  yet,  when  it 
came  to  a  solemn  contract  for  good  or  ill,  and  for  life,  no  such 
painstaking  was  exercised.  The  Utopians  thought  such  remissness 
most  culpable. 

The  day  is  appointed  for  the  bath.  Great  preparations  are 
made.  It  is  tacitly  understood,  though  not  expressed,  what  the 
bath  party  means.  The  cooks  of  both  parties  are  kept  busy  for 
several  days.  They  prepare  dainty  dishes  and  sweetmeats  of  every 
description  and  flavor.  The  Turkish  women,  not  unlike  the 
"children  of  the  azure  sheen,"  are  very  fond  of  confectionery. 
The  greatest  attention  is  paid,  also,  in  procuring  the  rarest  and 
most  elegant  suits  tor  the  bath.  A  competitive  but  friendly 
excitement  ar'ses  between  the  families  ;  for  the  Turks  are  as 
particular  about  their  bathing  clothes  as  the  fashionable  belle  at 
Schevningen  or  Newport. 

The  bride,  or  the  nominee  for  that  function,  is  arrayed  in  her 
most  elegant  dress.  She  is  escorted  to  the  bath  in  her  best 
bravery  of  silk  and  satin,  feridjie  and  parasol.  She  is  accompa- 
nied by  her  mother  and  all  the  women  of  her  house.  The  servants 
and  slaves  are  summoned  for  this  service  ;  and  the  more  numerous 
these  are,  the  more  the  display  ot  luxury  is  enhanced.  As  soon 
as  the  parties  meet,  there  is  a  series  of  endless  compliments.  In 
this  the  Turkish  people  excel.  Coffee  and  sherbet  are  served 
around  to  the  company,  which  is  seated  on  the  divans.  Amidst 
clouds  of  smoke  from  narghile,  pipe  and  cigarette,  and  with  gos- 
sip and  laughter  which  "  make  old  wrinkles  come,"  the  future 
mother-in-law  adroitly  seats  herseh  by  the  nominee.  She  per- 
suades her  to  talk.  Unconscious  of  the  object,  the  girl  undergoes 
a  skillful  cross-examination.  Her  intellectual  and  moral  charac- 
ter is  thoroughly  scrutinized.  Her  life,  with  its  tastes  and  quali- 
ties, is  winnowed.  When  the  smoking  terminates,  there  is  the 
disrobing  in  order  to  go  into  the  interior  of  the  bath.  Then  fol- 
lov;s  the  robing  for  the  bath.  The  bath  being  intensely  hot,  the 
robing  is  not  cumbrous  or  extensive.  It  consists  simply  of  a  big 
towel  around  the  waist  covering  the  person  down  to  the  knees, 
and  a  second  towel  which  is  thrown  over  the  shoulders  like  a  sash. 


566  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

This  last  towel  is  taken  off  as  soon  as  the  interior  of  the  bath  is 
entered,  as  the  heat  and  consequent  perspiration  make  it  intoler- 
able. Gibbon  says  that  Zenobia,  when  led  in  triumph  by 
Aurelian,  almost  fainted  under  the  intolerable  burden  of  jewelry. 
Not  so  with  our  candidate  for  the  bridal  ofifice.  Her  decorations 
are  reserved  for  her  triumphal  procession  and  entry  into  her  new 
household. 

The  hair  is  unloosened  and  hangs  over  the  shoulders.  Each 
lady  is  taken  care  of  by  one  or  two  servants  ;  but  the  future 
mother-in-law  never  quits  the  nominee.  She  makes  thorough 
investigation  until  the  bath  is  over.  If,  like  the  sisters  of  the 
Gorgons — the  Graese — who  had  but  one  eye  and  one  tooth  among 
the  entire  si.'-terhood  with  which  to  go  out  and  make  their  calls, 
our  nominee  should  be  found  wanting  in  these  or  any  other  pre- 
requisites to  healthy  and  beautiful  womanhood,  is  it  not  reason- 
able to  believe  that  the  future  mother-in-law  would  discover  the 
flaw  and  announce  the  fact  to  her  lord  and  husband  ? 

The  place  and  mode  of  bathing  are  quite  different  from  those 
of  the  European  or  American.  The  bath  is  a  large  square  room. 
It  is  paved  with  marble  or  stones.  It  is  air-tight.  In  it  there  are 
fountains  attached  to  the  walls.  They  furnish  cold  and  hot  water. 
Under  these  fountains  there  are  small  basins  about  fifteen  inches 
wide  and  ten  inches  deep.  These  are  fixed  at  about  half  a  yard 
above  the  floor.  The  basins  are  filled  with  water,  the  degree  of 
whose  heat  is  regulated  at  will.  The  bather  seats  herself  on  the 
floor  by  the  basin  and  the  servant  washes  her,  soaping  and  lather- 
ing her  head  and  then  her  body,  pouring  the  water  from  the  basin 
over  the  head  and  rinsing  off  the  snowy  suds.  If  in  a  festive  mood, 
the  younger  females  play  the  Naiad,  and,  not  infrequently,  throw 
water  about,  over  themselves  and  others,  with  a  hilarity  belonging 
to  youth  in  its  sportive  morning.  Sometimes  these  nymphs  thus 
dally  with  the  elements  for  hours.  Sometimes  the  more  lethargic 
lie  in  soak  or  undergo  the  process  of  maceration,  but  not  often  on 
these  betrothal  occasions. 

After  this,  dry  clothes  are  brought.  Neither  are  these  "  volu- 
minous and  vast,"  for  they  consist  of  two  towels,  with  a  third  one 
to  crown  the  head,  like  a  turban.  Before  leaving  the  interior  of 
the  bath,  all  the  party,  including  the  damsel,  dye  their  nails  and 
the  palms  of  the  hands  with  henna.  Then  they  hie  in  a  group  to 
the  cooling-room.     Then  the  banquet  begins.     Rugs  are  spread 


ENCHANTED  VIANDS  A  T  THE  BA  TH.  567 

upon  the  floor.  A  stool  is  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  On 
this  is  placed  a  large  salver.  The  company  seat  themselves, 
cross-legged,  on  the  rugs  and  around  the  stool  and  salver.  The 
former  is  covered  with  a  gorgeous  table-cloth.  A  long  strip  of 
finest  linen,  bordered  and  broidered  with  golden  or  silken  figures, 
say  one  yard  wide  and  nine  yards  long,  is  passed  around  to 
the  guests.  What  for  ?  To  be  used  as  a  napkin,  in  common.  It 
gives  unity  to  the  sentiment  and  the  festivity.  Then  the  servants 
bring  in  the  delicacies.  Each  dish  is  placed  in  the  middle  of  the 
salver.  The  "leading  lady,"  with  dainty  finger  and  thumb, takes 
up  the  acceptable  tidbit,  and  accomplishes  the  first  responsible 
bite.  Then  the  others  follow  ;  plunging  their  henna-tinted  fingers 
into  the  single  dish.  Bite  after  bite  follows,  with  lively  and  glee- 
ful procession.  This  interesting  process — if  one  could  only  see 
it — would  reproduce  one  of  the  pictures  of  Spenser  in  his  "  Faerie 
Queen."  It  is  that  enchanted  vision  where  Sir  Callidore,  in  going 
through  the  Bower  of  Bliss,  is  saluted  by  bevies  of  beauteous 
damosels,  who  pluck  luscious  clusters  of  grapes  from  the  over- 
hanging vines,  and  press  the  nectar  into  golden  goblets  with  fairy 
fingers.  **  So  fair  a  wine  press  makes  the  wine  more  sweet." 
With  a  little  changing  of  Spenser's  fancy,  may  it  not  be  said, 
**  So  fair  a  group  of  banqueters  makes  the  banquet  more  tasteful." 
There  is  no  enchanted  viand  before  the  happy  company.  No 
drink  is  allowed  to  stimulate  or  drown  the  senses.  The  only 
drink  is  pure  water  and  lemonade!  The  mother-in-law  has  no 
chance  to  get  at  the  incautious  truth,  on  the  maxim — in  vino 
Veritas. 

The  artist,  when  called  upon  to  paint  the  grief  of  Iphigenia 
over  the  death  of  Agamemnon,  dropped  the  curtain.  We  do  not 
follow  this  gruesome  example  ;  for  the  subject  is  not  sad.  But 
we  have  not  the  artistic  skill  to  create,  in  the  reader's  imagination, 
such  imagery  of  this  bath  and  banquet  as  to  do  justice  to  the 
scene. 

The  banquet  may  last  three  or  four  hours.  Generally,  the 
bride  does  not  know  or  seem  to  know  its  object.  Sometimes  even 
the  mother  of  the  bride  ignores  it  ;  although  she  may  suspect  it 
After  the  dinner,  the  coffee  and  smoking  are  finished,  the  parties 
separate  with  earnest  promises  to  renew  the  entertainment. 

The  mother  of  the  boy  goes  home.  There  she  is  expected 
with  anxiety  by  her  husband.     He  waits  eagerly  to  hear  her 


568  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

impressions.  She  gives  him  such  a  detailed  account  of  her  inves- 
tigations as  only  a  female  and  a  mother  can  give.  If  the  report 
be  satisfactory,  the  next  step  is  to  rally  for  the  election  of  the 
nominee.  A  day  or  two  after,  the  mother  of  the  boy  pays  a  visit 
to  the  family  of  the  girl.  There  she  reveals  her  object.  As  a 
matter  of  course,  the  mother  of  "the  nominee"  is  surprised! 
She  dodges  the  proposal  by  postponing  an  answer  until  she  consults 
her  husband,  who  happens  to  be  absent;  but  she  promises  to  speak 
to  him  about  it.  In  returning  the  visit,  the  girl's  mother  bears  the 
answer  of  her  husband.  If  the  proposition  be  agreeable,  the 
mother  manages  a  meeting  of  the  husbands,  in  order  to  arrange 
the  terms  of  the  contract  and  dower,  as  well  as  to  fix  the  time  for 
the  marriage. 

Perhaps  one  disadvantage  connected  with  the  marital  relation 
in  this  polygamous  country  is  that  there  is  no  courting.  The 
amusement,  comfort  and  delight  implied  in  this  term  are  not 
altogether  unknown;  but  if  done  at  all,  it  is  so  surreptitious  that 
the  satisfaction  is  limited.  The  marriage,  in  fact,  is  a  lottery. 
Sometimes  the  betrothal  takes  place  when  the  bride  and  groom 
are  but  children.  They  have  never  seen  each  other.  Of  course, 
he  is  attracted  by  the  wonderful  poetry  and  eulogium  which  the 
go-between  gives  in  extravagant  phrase  of  the  girl's  beauty.  Is 
she  not  fair  ?  What  is  the  lily  at  the  dawn  ?  Is  she  not  slender 
and  graceful  as  the  doe;  as  mild  and  radiant  as  the  full  moon? 
The  "  old  aunty  "  thus  arouses  the  imagination  of  the  boy  who 
would  wed. 

To  the  expected  bride  she  will  say:  "  Is  he  not  as  brave  as 
the  sword  of  Selim  ?  Is  not  his  hand  open  to  charity,  even  as 
that  of  the  Sultan?  Will  he  not  give  you  children  as  radiant 
and  as  fair  as  the  dewy  rose  ?  " 

But  they  seldom  have  a  chance  in  advance  to  test  these 
extravagant  expressions.  However,  there  is  one  consolation  if  it 
be  a  lottery,  for  if,  when  the  bridegroom  sees  the  bride,  he  is  not 
pleased,  divorce  is  easy,  even  though  it  be  expensive. 

The  betrothal  of  a  young  Turkish  girl  calls  for  a  grand  party. 
How  this  betrothal  is  accomplished;  how  the  young  girl  may 
possibly  have  a  peep  at  her  husband  through  some  lattice  or 
chink  in  the  door — has  often  been  described.  It  is  generally 
believed  that  the  bridegroom  does  not  see  the  bride  until  many 
days  after  the  betrothal.     The  betrothal  consists   in  a  marriage 


A  SCHOOL  FOR  BRIDES. 


569 


contract.  The  bride  may  then  take  a  new  name.  She  becomes 
a  hanoum.  When  she  is  brought  home  to  the  bridegroom, 
another  festival  is  inaugurated,  with  furniture  and  other  gifts  for 
the  housekeeper,  and  a  throne  for  the  bride.  A  prayer-carpet  is 
also  given,  and  at  last  a  peaceful  and  happy  home  is  almost  invari- 
ably the  finality. 

There  has  been  much  difficulty  in  establishing  Turkish  schools 
for  girls.  Mrs.  Walker,  in  her  book  about  Turkey,  was  employed 
in  one  of  these  schools  to  teach  drawing.  Her  picture  of  the 
school  is  a  humorous  one  : 

She  has  charge  of  some  forty  girls;  some  of  them  are 
matured  women.  They  are  all  eager  to  be  educated,  just 
as  our  young  Africans  were  after  the  war ;  but  a  cigarette  was 
more  attractive  to  them  than  a  slate  and  pencil,  and  the  prome- 
nade more  alluring  than  even  making  pictures  in  oil  or  water. 
Their  minds  ran  more  on  matrimony  than  in  depicting  ruined 
temples  and  spoiled  kiosks.  An  incident  in  connection  with  her 
school  in  a  Turkish  village  of  the  Bosporus,  illustrates  the  mode 
by  which  sometimes  the  young  women  are  selected  as  wives. 
When  the  girls  are  assembled  in  the  school,  a  strange,  weird,  old 
woman  enters.  She  produces  a  flutter  in  the  dove-cote.  The 
teacher  makes  inquiry: 

"Who  is  she?" 

"  Oh!  she  comes  to  look  at  the  girls." 

"  For  what  purpose?"  asks  the  artist-teacher. 

"  You  will  see  soon,"  reply  the  giggling  beauties. 

The  old  woman  settles  down  to  a  special  stare  at  two  of  the 
houris,  and  then  leaves.  Then  the  explanation  comes.  She  is 
picking  out  a  wife  for  some  one.  The  school  then  becomes  a  sort 
of  marital  market.  After  such  a  scene,  those  selected  for  matri- 
mony begin  to  dress  with  extraordinary  attire  and  fantastic 
splendor.  The  girls  wear  all  their  jewelry  and  their  head-dresses, 
with  a  "  twittering  "  sort  of  consciousness  and  a  general  airiness 
of  manner. 

In  case  the  children  have  no  father  or  grandfather,  the  con- 
summation of  the  contract  depends  on  their  guardian.  He  assumes 
the  same  authority  in  the  premises  as  if  he  were  the  father  himself. 

In  the  perfection  of  a  marriage  contract,  and  in  order  to  make 
it  valid,  care  must  be  taken  to  avoid  the  legal  prohibitions.  They 
are  as  follows  :     A  man  cannot  marry  his  mother  or  grandmother, 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


PROHIBITED  CLASSES  IN  MARRIAGE. 


571 


nor  his  daughter  nor  their  daughters,  nor  the  daughters  of  his  sons 
and  sisters,  nor  the  daughters  of  these  and  the  daughters  of  their 
children,  nor  his  aunts  and  the  sisters  of  his  grandfathers,  mater- 
nal or  paternal'.  The  like  classes  are  prohibited  to  the  women, 
Consangumity  is  attributed  where  there  are  valid  marriages  or 
the  semblance  of  them.  Still,  marriage  with  a  natural  child  is 
prohibited  both  to  father  and  mother.  Fosterage,  which  is  estab- 
lished by  the  milk,  is  another  impediment  ;  but  it  has  reference 
to  the  quantity  of  the  lacteal  fluid,  and  it  must  be  such  as  gives 
increase  to  the  flesh  and  strength  to  the  bones.  According  to 
the  **  Sheeahs,"  no  effect  is  attributed  to  anything  less  than  fifteen 
acts  of  suckling,  or  continued  suckling  for  a  day  and  a  night. 
These  fifteen  acts  must  be  consecutive  from  one  woman  ;  and  if 
another  woman  intervenes  before  the  completion  of  this  magic 
number — like  Rip  Van  Winkle's  drink  of  schnapps,  after  he  swore 
off — they  do  not  count.  The  nurse  does  not  become  the  foster- 
mother  of  the  child,  unless  she  complete  the  nursing.  She  does 
not  obtain  the  benefactions  and  gifts  which  ensue,  unless  she  per- 
fect the  work.  All  these  conditions  have  reference  to  an  infant 
under  two  years  old. 

The  milk  must  be  drawn  from  the  breast.  Any  "  deludation, ' ' 
or  tainting  of  the  milk,  or  any  artificial  nursing,  does  not  incur 
prohibition  in  marrying.  The  nurse  should  be  of  the  Mussulman 
faith,  chaste  and  pure.  No  infidel  is  allowed,  except  under  great 
necessity.  She  must  be  restrained  from  drinking  wine  or  eating 
pork.  It  is  an  old  traditionary  rule  that  she  must  not  be  a  fire- 
worshipper.  The  children  nursed  by  the  same  woman  cannot 
intermarry.  Their  fathers  and  mothers  cannot  marry  any  of 
the  children  nursed  by  the  same  woman  who  nursed  their  child. 
The  husband  must  be  of  the  Mussulman  faith  ;  that  is  to  say,  a 
Mussulman  can  marry  a  Christian  or  Jewish  woman,  but  a  Mus- 
limah  (Mussulman  woman)  cannot  marry  with  a  Christian  or 
Jew.  Marriage  with  fire-worshippers  is  utterly  prohibited.  No 
marriage  is  permitted  with  a  repudiated  woman,  unless  six 
months  have  elapsed  since  she  has  been  repudiated.  A  thrice- 
repudiated  woman  cannot  remarry  with  her  husband,  unless  she 
has  been  intermediately  married  to  another  man,  and  the  mar- 
riage has  been  actually  consummated.  If  the  man  has  taken 
the  legal  number  to  wife — i.  e.,  four — he  cannot  contract  any 
new  marriage,  unless  he  repudiate  one  of  his  wives. 


572 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


All  these  impediments  being  taken  into  consideration,  the  con- 
tract is  signed.  The  dower  is  payable,  half  in  advance  ;  the  other 
half  remains  to  be  paid  to  the  wife  in  case  of  repudiation.  This 
reservation  is  prudence  itself.  It  enables  her  to  support  herself 
during  the  time  she  is  forbidden  to  contract  a  new  marriage. 

The  marriage  service  in  Turkey  is  very  simple.  Every  mar- 
riage is  substantially  based  upon  this  formula  : 

The  man  to  his  intended  wife  :  "It  is  my  right  to  love  several 
women,  and  your  right  only  to  love  me!  Attend  to  your  duty, 
and  I  will  look  out  for  my  rights!  " 

This  is  concise,  and  somewhat  after  the  teachings  of  the 
Koran  ;  but  if  she  chose  to  make  trouble  in  the  family  it  is  costly, 
for  divorce  means  dower  ;  and  dower  to  some  people  in  the  Orient 
means  death. 

It  is  the  custom,  in  most  of  the  places  in  the  Ottoman  empire, 
that  the  marriage  festivities  should  last  four  days.  They  generally 
commence  on  Mondays.  Invitations  are  sent  out  for  the  first 
day,  to  the  high  dignitaries  of  the  place  ;  on  the  second  day  to 
officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  as  well  as  to  magistrates  ;  and  on 
the  third  day,  to  civil  functionaries  and  to  financial  folk  and 
tradesmen.  The  fourth  day,  the  doors  are  open.  All  friends 
and  acquaintances  may  then  enter  in  and  tender  congratulations. 
This  tender  must  be  made  late  in  the  afternoon.  The  bridegroom  is 
then  associated  with  relatives  and  friends.  The  same  ceremonial 
is  followed  on  the  part  of  the  bride. 

On  Monday  morning,  one  or  two  bands  of  Turkish  music  are 
on  hand.  A  Turkish  band  is  composed  of  a  kind  of  banjo,  some 
tambourines,  and  sometimes  the  clarinet  and  violin.  The  men 
who  play  the  banjo  and  tambourine  also  sing.  Games  are  made 
and  plays  performed.  Juggling  is  common.  Dancing  and  gym- 
nastics are  not  neglected  in  the  fete.  As  the  men  and  women  do 
not  mingle,  and  as  the  Turks  never  dance,  professional  dancers 
are  engaged.  They  don  a  sort  of  petticoat  for  the  purpose. 
Sometimes  Gypsy  women  are  hired,  who  dance  after  certain  meth- 
ods hardly  in  vogue  in  fastidious  communities.  It  is  quite  proper 
that  only  the  men  are  present  to  enjoy  these  sensuous  diversions. 
There  are  buffoons,  dwarfs,  story-tellers  and  wrestlers,  who  con- 
tribute to  the  amusement  of  the  men  ;  for  amusement  seems  to 
be  the  sole  object  of  their  gathering,  in  which,  however,  are  not 
wanting   eating  and   drinking,    sherbet  and    syrups,   and    then 


THE  BRIDE  BROUGHT  HOME. 


573 


talking  loosely,  after  the  manner  of  gregarious  men  on  such 
assemblages. 

Upon  occasions  of  this  kind,  the  wedding  parties  generally  go 
to  some  watering-place  near  the  city  or  town,  to  spend  part  of  the 
day.  There  the  wrestlefs  and  other  genii  perform.  Among  other 
amusements,  there  is  a  separate  party  to  the  bath  for  both  sexes. 
This  takes  place  on  Thursday,  'i'he  bridegroom  goes  with  his 
friends,  and  the  bride  goes  with  her  friends.  It  is  a  singular 
feature  of  the  wedding,  that  every  amusement  at  the  bridegroom's 
house  is  repeated  at  the  bride's  house. 

On  the  afternoon  of  Thursday,  the  two  parties  gather  under 
the  one  roof  of  the  house  which  is  to  be  the  abode  of  the  newly 
married  couple.  The  women  meet  in  the  haremlik  and  the  men 
in  the  salemlik.  Not  among  the  least  of  the  delights  upon  this 
occasion,  is  the  display  by  the  bride  of  her  diamonds  and  other 
jewelry.  The  custom  is  not,  as  we  know,  peculiar  to  the  Orient. 
The  presents  she  receives,  her  trousseau  and  toilet,  are  viewed 
with  the  optics  of  critical  and  admiring  female  friends.  These 
are  arranged  in  one  or  two  rooms,  so  as  to  display  their  symmetric 
and  lustrous  beauty,  and  so  that  the  guests  may  felicitate  the 
happy  possessors.  After  having  admired  the  bride  herself  and 
the  wealth  wherewith  she  is  adorned  and  endowed,  and  where- 
withal she  is  arrayed — even  to  the  trimmings  of  her  dress  and  the 
adornments  of  her  hair — the  company  themselves  begin  to  share 
the  happiness  of  the  pair. 

The  writer,  being  of  the  ruder  sex,  has  never  been  admitted 
as  yet  to  admire  any  bride  in  Turkey  but — his  own.  He  is  unable 
to  say  how  the  Turkish  bride  looks  or  acts  in  her  elegant  toilet; 
but,  on  veracious  hearsay,  he  undertakes  to  reproduce  something 
of  the  graphic  and  vivacious  hilarities  and  scenes  of  the  "  home 
coming"  of  the  wedded  in  this  Oriental  land. 

Let  the  reader,  therefore,  enter  in  fancy  into  the  haremlik, 
where  the  writer  cannot  go.  The  room  to  which  the  bride  is  taken 
is  decorated  with  flowers  hung  on  the  walls  and  on  the  ceiling. 
These  are  intermingled  with  silk  stuffs  of  bright  and  variegated 
color.  The  divan  is  covered  with  a  richly  embroidered  cloth.  In 
one  corner  there  is  a  special  seat  for  the  bride.  It  has  the  appear- 
ance of  a  throne.  Why  not  ?  Is  not  the  bride  to  be  a  queen  here 
— until  dethroned  ?  Next  to  this  room  is  the  bridal  chamber.  It 
is  shown  to  the  visitors.     The  bed  is  magnificently  made  up  with 


574 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TLRKEY. 


embroidered  silk  hangings  and  velvet  coverlets,  that  would  make 
the  old  home-made  quilts  of  our  grandmothers  in  America 
"  crazy."  Every  convenience  to  begin  comfortable  housekeeping 
appears.  On  one  side  of  the  couch  are  the  "  night  gowns  "  of  the 
bride  and  the  bridegroom.  On  the  divan  is  the  morning  gown  of 
each.  On  the  table  there  are  two  small  vases.  They  contain 
Oriental  perfumes.  These  are  the  usual  objects  in  the  Oriental 
bridal  chamber.  As  to  the  general  furnishing  of  the  bedroom,  it 
depends  on  the  pecuniary  and  social  position  of  families. 

There  is  a  third  room  shown  to  visitors.  Here  are  elegant 
dresses  and  toilets,  mirrors,  table  services,  linen,  tables,  chairs, 
etc.,  down  to  the  most  menial  kitchen  utensil.  The  Turks  do  not 
make  much  use  of  stoves;  but  there  are  braziers  for  warmth  by 
charcoal,  called  mangals.  They  are  of  metal — silver,  bronze  or 
copper.     They  give  their  shining  beauty  to  the  room. 

The  crowd  is  immense  in  the  haremlik  on  Thursday,  when  the 
bride  makes  her  entrance  into  her  new  home.  So  great  is  the 
throng  that  a  mistress  of  ceremonies  is  a  desideratum.  She  pre- 
vents overcrowding,  and  endeavors  to  make  the  guests  comfortable. 
The  room  in  which  the  bride  is  to  be  received  is  kept  free  from 
the  mass.  The  visitors  are  seated  in  the  surrounding  rooms  and 
in  their  nooks  and  angles.  As  there  are  no  men  allowed  in  the 
haremlik,  the  women  rush  in  there  with  absolute  freedom.  Nearly 
all  of  them  uncover  their  faces.  Mischief  fairly  dances  in  their 
large  black  eyes! 

Now  comes  the  very  acme  and  the  heyday  of  this  unique 
entertainment  !  Upon  the  forenoon  of  this  eventful  day,  a 
long  procession  of  carriages,  loaded  with  elegant  toilets,  moves 
toward  the  house  of  the  bridegroom.  In  its  midst  there  is  one 
carriage  specially  honored.  It  may  not  compare  with  the  bridal 
chariot  described  in  the  Bible,  whose  wood  was  of  cedar,  its 
pillars  of  silver,  its  bottom  of  gold,  its  covering  of  purple,  and 
the  midst  thereof  paved  with  love  for  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem. 
It  may,  at  least  for  the  poorer  class,  be  only  the  ordinary  arabi 
or  wagon,  gilded  outside,  and  furnished  within  with  yellow  silk, 
or  for  the  richer,  such  as  one  may  see  going  from  Stamboul  over 
the  bridge  to  Pera  in  a  coach  of  French  or  German  manufacture, 
with  an  elegant  high-stepping  team  of  bays.  But,  for  rich  or  poor, 
there  is  a  favored  vehicle,  in  which,  as  yet  in  maiden  medita- 
tion, sits  the  central  figure  of  the  procession!     She  is  dressed  in 


EMBARRASSMENTS  OF  BRIDE  AND  BRIDEGROOM.     575 

faultless  array;  her  artist  has  prepared  the  eye  with  a  pencil,  quite 
worthy  of  Meissonier.  Her  face  is  shrouded  under  a  thick  veil  of 
gold  threads,  which  floats  down  to  her  waist.  As  soon  as  the  pro- 
cession approaches  the  house,  notice  is  given  to  the  bridegroom. 
He  hurries  to  the  door  of  the  haremlik,  to  receive  the  bride;  for, 
be  it  known,  as  to  this  day  of  days,  the  bridegroom  is  made  an 
exception,  and  is  graciously  allowed  to  eftter  the  sacred  precincts 
where  the  group  of  women  awaits  him.  He  tenders  his  arm  to 
the  bride.  He  conducts  her  through  the  crowd  of  women  to  the 
throne  room.  He  seats  her  on  the  throne.  He  speaks  to  her 
some  honeyed  words,  full  of  Oriental  metaphor  and  loving  ardor. 
Perhaps  he  recites  a  verse  from  Hafiz,  about  the  love  of  the 
bulbul  and  the  rose;  or,  perhaps  he  compares  his  beloved,  after 
Solomon's  ornate  style,  with  all  the  fragrance  of  the  gardens  and 
the  glory  of  the  morning.  Perhaps  he  calls  her  a  bundle  of 
myrrh,  a  cluster  of  camphire  in  the  vineyards  of  En-ghadi,  the 
rose  of  Sharon,  the  iily  of  the  valley;  or  like  unto  a  young  hart 
upon  the  mountains  of  spices!  Perhaps  he  tells  her  that  she  is  as 
fair  as  the  moon  and  clear  as  the  sun;  or  something,  if  not  so 
grandiose,  more  appropriate  and  gentle  for  the  occasion. 

In  passing  amidst  the  women,  he  bows  low  and  hangs  his  head 
modestly  downward.  Nevertheless,  the  women  affect  surprise  and 
indignation  at  his  intrusion  within  their  precinct.  They  begin  a 
general  howling.  They  cover  their  faces  with  fluttering  haste; 
for  is  not  this  apparition  a  horrid  monster  ?  Regardless  of  feet  or 
hands,  the  Turkish  women  must  cover  their  faces.  Then  they 
are  indeed  secluded.  No  reck  for  any  other  part  of  the  body. 
As  is  generally  the  case  on  such  occasions,  if  their  yashmaks  are 
not  near,  they  take  hold  of  their  skirts  and  with  them  hide  their 
blushes.  The  bridegroom  continues  his  compliments  to  the  bride.. 
She  continues  to  enshroud  her  face.  He  retires  bent  like  an 
interrogation  point,  and  looking  sheepishly  absorbed  in  aesthetic 
study  of  the  figures  and  hues  of  the  rug  upon  the  floor.  While 
retiring,  he  scatters  among  the  crowd  small  coin  by  the  handful — 
gold,  silver  or  copper,  according  to  his  wealth  and  position.  The 
women  still  keep  their  faces  under  cover;  and,  from  under  cover, 
as  from  the  chorus  in  a  Greek  drama,  there  comes  a  murmur  of 
approbation  for  the  happy  match,  and  sometimes  of  disapproba- 
tion, if,  in  the  opinion  of  the  chorus,  it  is  a  bad  match.  The 
bride  then  takes  refreshments,  and  rests  a  little.   The  gold-thread 


576  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

veil  covering  her  face  is  taken  off.     She  is  ready  to  show  herself 
to  the  visitors;  but  only,  of  course,  to  the  female  portion. 

To  give  a  description  of  the  attire  of  the  bride  demands  a 
dainty  pen  and  a  nicer  sense  than  belongs  to  the  sterner  sex. 
The  writer  essays  to  do  it  with  apprehension.  First  :  She  wears 
wide  trousers,  not  unlike  a  petticoat,  tied  at  the  ankle  on  each 
leg.  The  fabric  is  of  red,  blue  or  yellow  silk,  embroidered  with 
gold.  Then  there  is  a  robe  of  silk  or  velvet,  and  a  long  train, 
glittering  with  gold  embroideries  and  precious  stones  and  sur- 
rounded with  gold  trimmings  and  lace.  Her  boots  or  shoes  are 
adorned  in  the  same  mode.  The  dressing  of  her  head  is  remark- 
able, and  her  face  is  painted  in  the  most  exaggerated  manner,  in 
white  and  red,  and  her  eyes,  her  eyebrows,  and  eyelashes  are  deli- 
cately penciled.  These  elegancies  of  the  toilet  rob  something  of 
grace  from  her  naturalness  by  defacing  her  maiden  beauty. 
Upon  her  cheeks  are  stuck  two  jewels,  each  as  large  as  half  a  dol- 
lar. In  the  middle  of  each  cheek  there  is  a  big  diamond.  Over 
the  cheek  and  on  the  forehead  are  affixed  small  gold  stars,  mount- 
ed with  precious  stones.  This  completes  the  costly  disfigure- 
ment of  the  face.  Over  the  forehead,  a  tuft  is  mounted  with  an 
extremely  large  diamond  ;  if  the  family  be  well  off,  this  gem  is 
something  less  than  a  walnut.  Another  diamond,  oblong  in  shape, 
is  fixed  on  one  side  of  the  head.  From  the  crown  of  the  head 
down  to  the  ear,  diamonds  are  scattered  over  and  through  the 
hair.  Kid  gloves  cover  her  hands,  over  which  a  large  number 
of  rings  are  worn.  A  beautiful  fan  completes  the  picture  of  the 
bride  en  toilette.  It  is  disenchanting  to  know  that  the  tuft,  the 
oblong  diamond,  and  the  wedding  dresses  are  often  hired  for  the 
ceremony.  That  is  not  unreasonable,  because  it  is  economi- 
cal ;  for  these  portions  of  the  regalia  cannot  be  used  on  any 
other  than  a  wedding  occasion,  or  by  any  one  else  than  a  bride. 

The  bride  being  refreshed,  the  congratulations  of  the  visitors 
commence.  The  mistress  of  ceremonies  shows  the  ladies  into  the 
bride's  room.  In  groups  of  eight  or  ten  they  approach  the  bride, 
examine  her  with  the  greatest  curiosity,  and  address  her  a 
''Mashallah!  Mashallah!"  which  means,  "May  Allah  guard 
you!"  They  then  retire.  All  the  visitors  make  this  round  of 
ceremonious  piety. 

Meanwhile,  the  amusements,  on  both  sides  of  the  house,  harem- 
lik  and  salemlik,  continue.     After  sunset,  the  bridegroom,  who  is 


PLEASANTRIES  OF  THE   OCCASION. 


577 


supposed  not  to  know  his  bride — never  having  seen  the  face  of  his 
wife — is  expected  to  make  a  call  upon  her  by  the  inside  door  which 
communicates  with  the  harem.  This  is  the  effort  of  his  life.  It 
requires  exquisite  diplomacy  and  stalwart  courage;  for  has  he  not 
to  escape  from  his  own  hilarious  friends  and  relatives,  who  are 
ready  to  play  every  prank  known  to  human  mischief,  and  who 
make  every  exertion  to  detain  him  from  the  society  of  his 
beloved  ?  This  is  the  culminating  pleasantry  of  the  occasion.  It 
commences  smoothly  enough,  and  the  bridegroom  takes  it  with 
good  temper  and  vivacity;  but  the  more  he  tries  to  avoid,  deceive 
and  flee  from  them,  the  more  teasing  and  vigilant  they  become. 
Finally,  in  despair,  he  tries  to  elude  them  by  sheer  force.  In 
some  instances  he  fails  in  this.  He  is  sometimes  thrashed 
soundly;  but  no  question  of  assault  and  battery  is  ever  raised. 

When  the  bridegroom  at  last  reaches  his  bride,  he  finds  her 
still  with  face  covered,  as  when  she  came  into  the  house.  Usage 
requires  that,  after  he  gives  her  a  present,  he  should  uncover  her 
face.  They  then  exchange  compliments.  From  that  moment  her 
face  is  to  be  veiled  to  every  one  of  the  other  sex,  except  to  him. 

This  is  marriage  in  its  most  simple  and  ordinary  ceremony. 
The  husband,  as  it  is  his  right,  may  want  to  marry  a  second  wife, 
and  after  the  second  he  may  want  a  third  and  a  fourth  one. 
These  are  in  addition  to  the  odalisques,  which  he  may  have  ad 
libitum.  Here  is  where  the  entanglement  and  trouble  begins  in 
the  household. 

The  first  wife  has  no  right  to  oppose  her  husband's  marrying  a 
second,  third  and  fourth  time.  He  is  not  compelled  even  to  ask 
her  opinion  about  the  matter.  He  is  free  in  the  premises,  so  long 
as  he  does  not  exceed  four  wives.  The  only  instance  where  the 
consent  of  the  wife  is  required  is  in  case  the  husband  wants  to 
marry  a  cousin  or  an  aunt  of  hers.  She  may  oppose  and  prevent 
such  an  alliance.  If  he  insist,  in  spite  of  her  opposition,  he  must 
repudiate  the  wife  and  pay  her  dower.  This  sometimes  is  a  diffi- 
cult thing  to  do. 

The  d6wer  is  obligatory,  though  it  is  not  necessary  that  it 
should  be  a  part  of  the  contract.  Its  amount  is  fixed  by  agree- 
ment. As  a  rule,  it  varies  according  to  the  social  condition  of  the 
woman.  Thus,  in  case  no  dower  has  been  allowed,  as  often  hap- 
pens, the  judge  fixes  it  under  the  law  ;  and  although  the  law  has 
fixed  some  limits  to  it,  still  it  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  judge. 


278  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

He  may  make  it  sufficient  for  the  kind  of  living  to  which  the 
woman  has  been  accustomed. 

In  making  the  dower  obligatory,  the  code  has  in  view  princi- 
pally a  provision  for  the  repudiated  wife.  Dower  is  intended  also 
as  a  shield  against  too  frequent  repudiations.  It  happens  often,  that 
though  the  husband  is  desirous  of  repudiating  his  wife,  he  finds  it 
impossible  to  pay  her  dower  ;  so  he  abstains  from  repudiating 
her.  The  law  fixes  the  dower  to  five  hundred  drams  of  silver,  or 
sixty-five  ounces  of  silver.  This  is  but  a  pittance  nowadays; 
but  it  was  fixed  by  the  Prophet.  This  is  the  amount  which  he 
assessed  for  his  own  wives.  It  must  have  been  adequate  for  the 
few  necessities  required  by  a  woman  among  the  Arab  tribes  at 
Mecca  and  Medina  thirteen  hundred  years  ago.  Besides,  it  was 
fixed  at  an  epoch  when  silver  was  scarcer  than  it  is  now,  and 
before  bonanzas  of  the  white  metal  had  leaped  out  of  the  sunless 
temples  of  the  earth. 

Moreover,  anything  which  is  capable  of  being  legally  acquired 
may  be  made  in  payment  of  dower,  except  wine  and  hogs!  One 
of  the  odd  forms  of  dower  is  the  teaching  of  a  chapter  of  the 
Koran  by  the  husband  to  the  wife.  It  is  a  pious,  though  a  pecun- 
iary equivalent!  Dower  also  may  be  a  slave,  or  a  house,  or  any- 
thing of  value.  '  If  the  husband  is  not  able  to  furnish  them,  he  is 
liable  for  their  value.  The  dower  may  also  be  agreed  upon  after 
the  marriage.  The  wife  may,  exonerate  the  husband  from  the 
dower,  or  she  may  commute  it  for  something  else.  She  becomes 
the  proprietor  of  the  dower,  and  may  legally  dispose  of  it ;  but 
should  the  husband  divorce  her  before  the  marriage  is  consum- 
mated, the  half  of  it  reverts  to  him.  Should  she  forgive  him  that 
which  belongs  to  her,  the  whole  would  be  his.  If  a  slave  be 
assigned  as  dower,  and  she  should  emancipate  the  slave,  and  she 
is  divorced  before  the  consummation  of  the  marriage,  she  is  liable 
for  half  the  value  of  the  slave.  In  case  of  dispute  with  regard  to 
the  amount  of  the  dower,  the  word  of  the  husband  is  preferred 
until  the  contrary  is  proved  ;  whereas,  if  he  acknowledge  the 
amount  stated  as  the  dower,  and  alleges  its  delivery,  bVit  fails  to 
prove  it,  credit  is  given  to  the  word  and  oath  of  the  woman. 

The  code  provides  as  to  the  time  to  be  devoted  by  the  hus- 
band to  each  one  of  his  wives,  in  case  he  has  more  than  one. 
This  rule  of  law  has  its  initiative  in  the  organic  law  that  each  man 
has  a  right  to  four  wives,  and  that  a  man  has  the  absolute  dis- 


THE  WIFE*S  PRIVILEGES. 


579 


posal  of  all  the  hours  of  the  day  for  himself.  The  law  allows  no 
right  to  the  wife  to  claim  the  attention  of  her  husband  during  the 
daytime.  It  creates  an  obligation  upon  the  husband  to  divide 
the  rest  of  his  time  equally  between  his  wives,  or,  at  least,  he  is 
not  bound  to  make  his  court,  or  to  be  with  one  wife,  more  than 
once  in  every  four  days,  and  this,  whether  he  has  one  wife  or 
more.  If  among  his  wives  there  is  a  slave,  she  has  the  right  only 
to  receive  half  the  time  allotted  to  the  free  wife.  This  does  not 
include  slaves  or  odalisques  who  are  not  lawfully  married. 

The  temporary  marriages  being  admitted  only  by  the  Sheeahs, 
and  these  temporary  contracts  not  being  under  general  Mahom- 
etan law,  it  may  suffice  to  state  that  such  marriages  can  be 
legally  made  for  one  month  or  one  year.  They  are  allowed  by 
the  religious  rules  of  that  sect. 

The  harshness  of  the  marriage  contract  toward  the  women  of 
the  Mahometan  countries  is  greatly  exaggerated,  if  not  entirely 
fanciful.  Marriage  is,  as  we  have  said,  a  civil  contract.  It 
gives  no  preference  or  right  to  either  of  the  contracting  parties 
over  the  property  of  the  other  party.  The  wife  retains  her  power 
of  disposing  of  her  estate.  She  can  be  sued  or  sue.  In  suing, 
she  has  no  need  of  a  "  next  friend"  or  trustee.  She  may  sum- 
mon her  own  husband  into  court.  Nor  is  he  liable  for  any  debts 
of  her  contracting.  He  does  not  vulgarly,  as  was  once  the  cus- 
tom in  America,  advertise  her  absence  from  bed  or  board  to  avoid 
the  payment  of  her  debts.  True,  he  must  maintain  her  and  pay 
her  dower,  as  we  have  stated,  in  case  of  separation. 

So  that,  in  many  respects,  if  Western  nations  may  not  learn 
something  of  utility  and  equity  from  the  Mahometan  code,  in 
the  matter  of  marriage,  they  may  at  least  refuse  to  credit  the  wild 
and  unfounded  statements  that  the  woman  of  the  East  is  a  slave 
to  her  husband,  and  compelled  to  serve  him,  as  if  he  had  the  ring 
of  the  Arabian  story,upon  which  the  genii  were  accustomed  to  wait. 

In  the  second  chapter  of  the  Koran,  there  are  several  para- 
graphs m  relation  to  wives  and  divorce.  From  these  the  law  of 
Turkey,  in  these  respects,  is  drawn  : 

•*  The  women  ought  also  to  behave  toward  their  husbands  in 
like  manner  as  their  husbands  should  behave  toward  them, 
according  to  what  is  just." 

The  family  relation  is  so  often  discussed  in  connection  with 
Turkey,  that  full  justice  cannot  be  done  unless  there  is  empha- 


580  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

sized  the  doctrine  of  adoption.  That  doctrine  is  a  part  of  the 
Oriental  religion.  It  is  sacred  to  the  Turk.  During  the  time  of 
the  grandfather  of  the  present  Sultan,  there  had  been  adopted  by 
the  princess,  the  Sultana  Asme,  a  beautiful  girl  called  Nazip  Ha- 
noum  The  Sultan  desired  to  wed  her;  but«he  defied  him.  The 
Sultan,  with  all  his  autocratic  power,  rich  gifts  and  imperial  pres- 
tige, could  not  obtain  his  wish  or  move  the  adopted  girl  to  enter 
his  seraglio,  for  was  she  not  adopted  by  a  princess,  and  free  to 
judge  as  to  her  own  domestic  life  ? 

Every  Pasha,  whatever  may  be  his  domestic  predilection,  is 
compelled  to  have  one  principal  wife.  She  is  called  the  Buyuk 
Hanoum,  She  is  always  attended  by  two  slaves,  and  has  often 
privileges  which  the  other  wives  do  not  possess. 

From  wrong  impressions  as  to  the  domestic  life  of  women  in 
Turkey,  as  in  all  Moslem  countries,  it  is  often  inferred  that  there 
is  no  home  in  Turkey;  and  the  question  is  asked,  How  can  a  man 
with  more  than  one  wife,  and  with  his  household  separated  into 
two  parts — the  Haremlikand  Salemlik — and  with  his  children  and 
wives  so  thoroughly  screened  from  the  outer  world,  contribute  to 
the  incomparable  happiness  of  the  hearthstone  ?  But  I  dare  avouch 
that  no  people  are  more  fond  of  their  homes  than  the  Turks,  and 
toward  their  children  they  are  inordinately  partial.  So  far  as  I 
have  observed,  their  courtesy  to  the  other  sex  is  unfailing.  The 
Turk  treats  his  wife  at  home,  as  I  have  understood,  with  the 
same  inbred  courtesy  which  he  displays  toward  the  gentler  sex 
away  from  home.  Outside  of  his  own  zenana,  the  accomplished 
Turk,  who  is  connected  with  the  governing  power  of  his  country, 
while  making  no  reckless  display  of  knightly  courtesy,  is  always 
chivalric  and  gentle. 

A  race  of  men  which  has  been  so  tolerant  as  the  Turk  toward 
other  religionists — which  finds  it  so  pleasant  to  be  neighborly  and 
honest  toward  strangers,  and  which  always  treats  animals  with 
kindness,  cannot,  unless  spoiled  by  contact  with  other  races,  be 
other  than  kind.  Considering  their  history  as  peasants  and 
soldiers,  and  their  dominant  Tartar  blood,  and  the  fact  that  they 
are  descended  from  the  same  race  as  those  saintly  heroes  who, 
like  Ghengis  Khan  and  Tamerlane,  ravaged  the  very  earth  itself, 
it  should  be  said,  to  their  credit,  that  they  have,  perhaps,  by 
means  of  the  teachings  of  the  Koran  and  Arabic  literature,  culti- 
vated and  practiced  the  knightly  graces  toward  the  female  sex. 


CHAPTER  XLIIL 

AMERICAN    INSTITUTIONS   IN   TURKEY — OUR   SCHOOIS  AND 
COLLEGES. 

It  is  a  busy  week  for  the  Legation  which  brings  together 
the  Ramazan  and  Bairara  fetes,  the  honors  and  dinners  to  the 
officers  and  men  of  the  Kearsarge  and  the  Commencementr.  of  the 
American  College  and  Home  School.  Besides,  does  it  not  include 
the  Fourth  of  July,  which  happens  on  Sunday  ?  Our  political 
Sabbath  is  not  celebrated  with  that  hilarity  which  the  day  should 
inspire,  because  it  was  a  dies  Dominicus.  This  day  and  its  glories, 
however,  do  furnish  the  climax  of  all  the  honors  to  the  Kear- 
sarge, in  which  the  Minister  had  his  Diversion.  The  Sultan  deter- 
mines that  nothing  shall  be  omitted  to  make  his  hospitality  to  the 
United  States  complete.  He  gives  the  nav::l  officers  and  their 
diplomatic  representative  a  grand  entertainment  at  the  Arsenal 
Palace.  Among  Turkish  officials  present  are  Hassan  Pasha,  Min- 
ister of  Marine,  who  presides;  the  Commodore  commanding  the 
Mahnioudie ;  Munir  Pasha,  First  Chamberlain  to  the  Sultan  ; 
Ibrahim  Bey,  Hakki  Pasha  and  others. 

The  dinner  begins  at  eight.  The  Turkish  band, which  is  famous 
for  its  rare  music,  entertains  the  company.  The  quay  and  the 
Golden  Horn  in  front  of  the  palace  are  illuminated,  and  with  the 
lights  on  the  stream  and  from  the  Bairam  illuminations,  and  the 
moon,  there  is  displayed  a  scene  for  a  weird  picture  by  Turner. 
Munir  Pasha,  is  the  bearer  of  many  choice  compliments  from  the 
Sultan.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  feast,  the  Minister  of  Marine 
makes  an  address  in  Turkish.  In  this  he  expresses  the  kindest 
wishes  of  the  Sultan  and  the  pleasant  impression  which  the  visit  of 
the  Kearsarge  has  made  upon  his  people.  A  warmer  welcome  could 
not  have  been  tendered.  The  Minister  responds.  Among  other 
things,  he  remarks  that  "  America,  like  Turkey,  is  a  composite 
nation.  In  the  United  States,  many  peoples  of  divers  races  and 
religions  make  a  mosaic  of  all  qualities,  united  in  one  character. 

581 


582  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Among  these  qualities,  how  much  had  been  given,  not  only  to 
America,  but  to  the  world,  by  the  Oriental  mind  ?  Has  it  not 
transmuted  astrology  into  astronomy,  and  alchemy  into  chemis- 
try ?  The  Department  of  Marine,  with  its  explosives  and  forces 
for  war  and  peace,  knew  what  the  West  had  given  to  the  East 
of  practical  science,  in  return  for  the  Oriental  abstractions  of 
mathematics.  The  West,"  continued  the  writer,  or,  rather,  speaker, 
"  shakes  hands  in  many  ways  with  the  East  to-night.  As  we  go 
west  around  our  planet,  we  meet  the  East;  and  as*we  go  east  we 
meet  the  West;  and  thus  we  merge  into  one  at  this  happy  board, 
knit  together  by  that  boundless  hospitality  which  only  the  Orient 
can  bestow."  Evidently,  the  wine  at  this  feast  had  made  the 
round  of  the  table  with  a  magic  rapidity,  only  equaled  by  that  of 
Puck  around  the  earth! 

The  Minister  closes  by  wishing  long  life  and  a  happy  reign  to 
His  Majesty;  and  compliments  the  Minister  of  Marine  and  the 
courteous  company  who  honor  his  country. 

His  Majesty  also  tendered  to  the  crew  of  the  Kearsarge  a 
dinner;  but  as  only  a  select  number,  fifty,  could  be  spared  from 
the  ship,  that  number  partook  of  a  dinner  in  the  adjoining  rooms. 
The  American  Minister  appeared  before  them  and  made  a  little 
more  rhetoric.  Rousing  cheers  are  given  for  the  Sultan.  The 
remaining  sailors  on  the  Kearsarge  are  not  forgotten  by  the  amia- 
ble sovereign;  for  he  orders  for  them  a  dinner  of  the  same  kind 
to  be  sent  to  the  vessel. 

As  the  sailors  leave  the  Arsenal  quay  with  the  Kearsarge 
band,  they  sing  our  national  song.  The  Bosporus  rings  with 
unwonted  acclamations. 

Following  this  dinner,  the  day  after.  Prince  Mehmet,  the 
eldest  son  of  the  Sultan,  and  his  companions,  the  nephews  of  the 
Sultan,  are  received  on  board  the  Kearsarge  by  the  Admiral  and 
his  officers,  the  Minister,  and  by  that  most  admirable  of  all  cour- 
teous gentlemen,  Mr.  Gwynne  Harris  Heap,  the  Consul-General. 
The  son  delivers,  as  His  Majesty  afterward  told  me,  his  second 
public  speech.  He  is  a  young  man  about  seventeen  years  of  age. 
He  is  exceedingly  modest  and  well-behaved.  He  is  already  mar- 
ried ;  and  we  are  told  that  he  is  devoted  to  his  wife. 

Following  this  reception,  on  the  next  day,  is  the  Salemlik.  It 
has  already  been  described.  After  that  the  Sultan  gives  an  audi- 
ence to  the  Admiral  and  the  Minister.    This  passes  off  in  the  most 


JOLLY,   UNDER  DIPLOMATIC  BURDENS.  e%x 

agreeable  manner.  These  hospitalities  surprise  the  other  Lega- 
tions. They  do  not  consider  the  fact  that  America  has  no 
designs  upon  either  the  dynasty  or  the  territory  of  Turkey.  Why 
should  not  the  Sultan  be  partial  to  our  country  ? 

In  connection  with  this  visit  of  the  Kearsarge  to  the  Bosporus, 
it  becomes  a  part  of  the  duty  and  pleasure  of  the  Minister's  wife 
to  give  an  entertainment  to  our  officers.  The  Hotel  Royal  is 
thrown  open  for  the  occasion,  with  such  adornments  of  flags  and 
such  a  presence  of  the  Ministers  of  all  nationalities  as  to  make  the 
festivity  one  long  to  be  remembered,  not  merely  because  the  dance 
is  kept  up  until  late  in  the  morning,  but  because,  with  the  aid  of 
the  band  of  the  Kearsarge  and  the  skill  and  grace  of  the  officers 
in  dancing,  the  young  people  of  all  the  Legations,  of  both  sexes, 
have  mutual  and  cordial  Diversion. 

To  conclude  this  series  of  entertainments,  this  week  of  con- 
tinuous enjoyment,  by  the  renewal  of  old  acquaintances  and  the 
making  of  new — the  consummation  is  reached  when,  from  the 
State  Department,  I  receive  a  friendly,  semi-official  letter  that  its 
Head  is  interested  in  these  performances,  which  are  quasi  national, 
and  that  the  Secretary  is  happy  to  know  that  "old  friends, 
even  when  staggering  under  diplomatic  burdens,  do  manage  to 
have  a  reasonably  good  time  and  enjoy  fresh  air  in  the  *  Islands 
of  the  Blest'  and  along  the  historic  shores  of  the  Bosporus." 
This  is  hardly  official  phraseology,  but  it  will  not  be  disowned 
by  Mr.  Secretary  Bayard. 

There  is  a  better  design  than  this  festive  quotation  suggests. 
The  presence  of  the  Kearsarge  at  Constantinople  has  its  uses.  It 
gives  prestige  to  the  American  government  and  people,  and  thereby 
enhances  the  interest  of  American  benevolence.  That  benevolence 
has  taken  here  the  practical  form  of  education.  In  this,  the 
American  colleges  and  schools  are  without  a  parallel,  either  at 
home  or  abroad,  for  their  endowments  and  advantages. 

I  have  referred,  in  other  connections,  to  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin, 
who  was  the  first  president  of  Robert  College.  The  delays  and 
impediments  to  its  establishment  were  overcome  by  his  patient, 
strenuous  and  indefatigable  efforts.  His  volume  of  personal  remi- 
niscence connected  with  his  life  in  Turkey  illustrates  that  personal 
pluck  and  persistent  energy  which  might  be  expected  from  a  typi- 
cal American.  He  stopped  at  no  experiment  to  make  his  success 
sure;  and  even  under  protest  from  his  colleagues  at  home  and 


•584  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY 


^•itimsm'^t'mir--. 


DR.   CYRUS   HAMLIN,    FIRST   PRESIDENT   OF  ROBERT  COLLEGE. 


DR   HAMLIN— AND  HIS  GREAT  SERVICES. 


585 


abroad  he  started,  during  the  Crimean  War,  a  bread  factory, where 
a  good  article  was  made,  and  much  reputation,  if  not  cash,  manu- 
factured. Dr.  Hamlin  is  a  double  cousin  of  the  ex-Vice-President 
of  the  United  States.  His  grandfather,  Colonel  Francis  Faulkner, 
was  of  staunch  Revolutionary  stock,  and  his  uncle,  Francis  Faulk- 
ner, has  an  honorable  record  in  the  Battle  of  Lexington.  These 
ancestors  had  a  Yankee  knack  for  a  trade;  for  it  is  recorded  of 
one  of  them  that  for  the  sum  of  six  pounds  and  a  red  coat,  he 
purchased  of  the  red  man  the  town  site  of  Andover.  If  we  read, 
*' twenty  gallons  of  rum  and  a  red  coat,"  we  have,  according  to 
the  family  tradition,  a  better  knowledge  of  the  barter!  The  tribe 
from  which  Dr.  Hamlin  is  descended  was  Puritanic  to  a  high 
degree;  but  like  others  of  that  persuasion,  they  were  not  averse  to 
a  thrifty  bargain. 

One  of  the  daughters  of  Dr.  Hamlin  is  Mrs.  Washburn,  whose 
husband  is  the  able  and  learned  president  of  the  college.  Another 
daughter  is  at  the  head  of  the  "  Home  '  *  in  Scutari,  so  that,  although 
the  good  doctor  has  returned  to  America,  his  influence  remains, 
along  with  his  strength  of  body  and  length  of  years.  Truly,  "  the 
glory  of  children  are  their  fathers,"  and  vice  versa. 

There  are  other  pioneers  in  the  work  of  founding  the  American 
College.  Next  after  Mr.  Robert,  the  benevolent  New  York  mer- 
chant, we  should  honor  Doctors  Dwight,  Goodell,  Schaufler  and 
the  elder  Dr.  Riggs.  The  first  and  last  survive.  The  rest  are  gone 
to  the  better  land.  Dr.  Riggs  is  the  member  who  supervised  the 
Bible  House.  He  returned  to  America  last  year.  He  has  worked 
for  half  a  century  in  translating  the  Scriptures  into  the  Turkish 
and  Bulgarian  languages.  He  made  himself  gracious  to  the  Mos- 
lem, for  he  did  not  proselyte.  He  simply  elevated.  They  looked 
upon  him  as  one  of  the  chief  men  of  "  The  Book."  Therefore 
they  honored  him.  He  is  regarded  with  universal  respect  by  the 
younger  missionaries,  among  whom  the  most  active  and  far- 
sighted  is  a  son  of  Dr.  Dwight.  The  business  of  the  Bible  House 
and  of  the  "  Home  "  Female  Seminary  is  well  conducted.  The 
grounds  of  the  latter  are  ample,  upon  a  commanding  situation,  and 
the  building  and  rooms  are  beyond  ail  praise  for  neatness  and 
commodiousness. 

In  these  institutions  there  is  every  facility  for  the  education 
of  both  sexes.  These  schools  are  the  offspring  of  American 
generosity.     They  are  the  co-adjutors  in  the  work  of  teaching, 


586  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IlSf  TURKE  V. 

printing  and  preaching  throughout  the  Turkish  empire ;  and 
although  they  are  constantly  demanding  the  supervision  of  the 
American  Minister,  and  the  protection  of  our  flag,  yet  never 
were  these  instrumentalities  of  civilization  put  to  nobler  use, 
and  never  was  there  more  need  of  a  diplomatic  service  than  in 
this  relation. 

These  schools,  however,  are  but  the  sample,  if  not  the 
symbol,  of  that  which  is  done  elsewhere  throughout  the  Turkish 
empire.  At  Aintab,  Harpoot,  and  Beirut,  there  are  institutions 
of  superior  grade.  The  two  former  are  situated  in  the  interier  of 
Asiatic  Turkey.  The  number  of  missionaries  scattered  through- 
out the  empire  speak  of  many  trials  and  troubles,  but  the  "  peace 
that  passeth  understanding,"  the  missionary  does  not  have^ 
except  in  his  dreams,  or  in  his  last  sleep. 

I  have  been  told  by  Doctor  Hamlin,  who  served  as  a  mission- 
ary and  teacher  for  forty  years  at  Constantinople,  that  the  pres- 
ence of  Admiral  Fa^ragut  at  the  Porte  with  his  vessels  some  years 
ago — before  Robert  College  received  its  charter  and  its  permit  to 
build — had  a  wonderful  effect  in  consummating  that  business. 
This  effect  was  skillfully  seconded  by  the  diplomacy  of  my 
lamented  friend,  Edward  Joy  Morris,  who  was  then  the  American 
Minister.  When  the  Admiral  was  visiting  the  konaks  of  the  Pashas 
and  was  feted  by  the  Sultan  and  his  Ministers,  he  was  reserved 
about  the  object  of  his  visit.  Upon  one  occasion  the  question 
was  asked  him  : 

"What,  Excellency,  do  you  think  about  Turkey?" 

He  gave  at  once  a  response  which  started  every  one  upon 
inquiry.  It  was  a  quiet  request  or  question  about  the  college. 
He  had  no  diplomatic  function  ;  but  he  was  suspected  of  being 
ready,  by  his  ships  and  guns,  to  take  advantage  of  the  situation. 
He  was  only  observing,  as  he  said,  "strange  countries."  As  at 
that  time  the  island  of  Crete  was  in  insurrection,  and  as  the  Turks 
were  considerably  annoyed  by  the  fact  that  these  gallant  Greeks 
were  demanding  a  legislative  assembly,  and  a  government  some- 
what like  that  of  our  States,  and  as  the  Turkish  Ministers  did  not 
understand  the  relation  of  our  country  to  other  countries,  namely, 
the  policy  of  non-intervention — they  thought  it  best  to  conciliate 
America  and  placate  Admiral  Farragut.  By  an  unexpected 
denouement,  the  permit  to  build  the  college  was  signed,  and  the 
Trade  hy  which  Robert  College  was  instituted  was  delivered. 


THE  ^^KEARSARGE"  AND  ITS  UTILITY, 


587 


It  is  not  necessary  to  say  here,  how  much  good  this  college 
has  accomplished  for  the  Orient.  In  another  chapter,  and  in 
connection  with  Bulgaria,  I  may  refer  to  it.  The  presence  of 
the  Kearsarge,  with  its  chivalric  history,  in  the  waters  of  the 
Porte  during  the  summer  of  1886,  enabled  the  American  Minis- 
ter to  produce  a  proper  emphasis  upon  the  Turkish  mind  in  rela- 
tion both  to  Robert  College  and  the  Home  School.  Admiral 
Franklin — ever  gallant  and  ever  American — and  Captain  Sigsbee, 
of  the  Kearsarge,  and  of  the  "Deep  Sea  Soundings,"  placed 
the  band  of  the  old  fighting  ship  at  the  call  of  the  Minister.  The 
Admiral  never  failed  when  the  music  of  the  gun  lit  up  the  fires  of 
battle  ;  and  the  Captain  never  failed  when  called  to  sound  the 
chromatic  scale  of  nature  beneath  the  surface  of  the  seas. 

When  Commencement  season  came,  the  officers  of  the  vessel, 
in  uniform,  together  with  its  band,  were  present.  In  fact,  the 
English-speaking  community  on  both  sides  of  the  Bosporus  were 
in  attendance.  The  most  remarkable  aspect  of  the  occasion  was 
the  composite  character  of  the  assemblage  and  scholars.  Many 
of  the  scholars  were  of  the  Armenian  race.  Their  names  are 
known  by  the  termination  "an."  Those  that  end  in  'itch,  'off, 
and  otherwise,  are  either  of  the  Bulgarian  or  Slavonic  race. 

The  occasion  is  one  of  unusual  interest.  Dr.  Washburn,  the 
President  of  the  College,  assists  the  Minister  to  preside,  because, 
as  he  says,  the  Minister  is  not  able,  with  his  short  acquaintance 
with  the  various  tongues  of  the  country,  to  pronounce  the  names 
of  the  graduates.  Oratory  finds  facile  though  polyglotical  utter- 
ance from  the  young  men  of  these  races.  Much  applause  and 
many  bouquets  mark  the  appreciation  of  the  audience.  After 
the  speaking,  diplomas  and  prizes  are  presented  to  the  several 
members  of  the  various  classes.  Rounds  of  applause  punctuate 
these  marks  of  merit.  Of  course,  the  Minister  is  comix-lled  to 
air  his  rhetoric.  He  is  not  a  little  disconcerted  by  the  strange 
tongues  which  he  hears,  not  so  much  the  English  or  the  French,  as 
the  others.  '*  There  was  much  discussion,"  remarks  the  Minister, 
"as  to  what  language  was  spoken  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  Para- 
dise was  situated  in  Armenia.  I  think  the  Low  Dutch  or  the 
Basque  contestants  must  give  way,  for  Adam  spoke  to  Eve  in  the 
soft,  sweet  language  of  Armenia.  This  was  before  the  fall.  After 
the  fall,  they  talked  Bulgarian  !  I  do  not  depreciate  the  language 
of  the  latter  race,  for  it  reminds  me  of  the  ragged,  jagged   and 


588  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

tough  Teutonic  tongue,  which  I  have  in  a  feeble  way  the  honor  to 
speak."  This  sally  was  received  with  various  interpolations,  as 
the  French  phrase  it.  After  allusions  to  the  College,  which,  for 
certain  reasons  of  the  censor,  were  not  fully  reported  by  the  jour- 
nals, the  Minister  referred  to  the  peculiar  environment  of  the 
College  : 

"  But  it  is  not  alone  the  romantic  and  historic  associations  of 
the  Bosporus  and  of  Roumeli-Hissar  ;  not  alone  these  tombs  and 
mosques  and  towers,  which  mark  a  great  period  in  human  annals; 
not  alone  the  strange  creed  and  race  which  yet  hover  about 
these  hills  ;  not  alone  the  sight  of  Olympus,  nor  the  nearness  of 
Ilion,  with  its  plain,  mounds  and  woes  ;  not  the  witchery  of  water, 
sky  and  mountain:  these  enchant  the  vision  and  animate  the 
spirit,  and  make  an  aureole  around  the  beautiful  brow  of  your 
eminence  ;  but  it  is  the  fact  that  this  spot  is  consecrated  to  the 
noblest  of  purposes.  Is  it  not  the  home  of  education  and  learn- 
ing ?  the  fountain  of  benevolence  and  the  author  of  piety  ?  These 
objects  lift  your  eminence  into  a  loftier  and  serener  height  than 
yonder  classic  mountain.  They  give  amenities  more  charming 
than  the  picturesque  prospect  of  the  Bosporus.  They  celebrate 
an  anftus  mirabilis  more  wonderful  than  the  historic  year  which 
marks  the  erection  of  those  towers  and  the  fall  of  yonder  superb 
city.  Here  you  are  taught  to  master  your  spirit;  and  that  is 
education.  He  who  taketh  a  city,  is  not  greater  ;  for,  as  it  is 
said  by  Bulwer  of  Rie?izi  :  *  So  great  may  be  the  power,  so 
mighty  the  eloquence,  so  formidable  the  genius  of  one  man, 
without  arms,  without  rank,  without  sword  or  ermine,  that  noth- 
ing can  withstand  him.' 

"  But  to  those  of  us  who  are  American,  there  is  a  patriotic 
attraction  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  this  College  is  the  offspring 
of  American  benefaction.  It  grew  under  the  planting  and  thrives 
under  the  watering  of  our  fellow-countrymen.  It  grows  with  the 
consent  of  a  government  and  ruler  whose  virtues  of  charity  and 
toleration  demand  honorable  recognition.  While  the  beneficiaries 
of  the  institution  are  of  another  race  and  clime,  the  large,  round- 
about humanities,  symboled  as  well  by  the  classics  as  by  the  Amer- 
ican flag,  enfold  them.  I  may  be  pardoned,  as  the  Fourth  of  July 
is  nigh,  for  referring  to  the  flag.  Its  roseate  stripes  blush  mod- 
estly for  the  backwardness  of  our  countrymen,  or,  rather,  for  the 
modest  republic  '  farther  west.'    Spangled  with  thirty-eight  stars, 


ROBERT  COLLEGE  COMMENCEMENT.  589 

every  star  a  State,  and  every  State  a  star,  it  kisses  the  breezes 
coming  to  it,  from  Bithynia  or  the  Balkans,  from  Alexandria, 
Athens  and  Jerusalem.  It  is  said  by  Gibbon,  'that  whatever 
rude  commodities  were  collected  in  the  forests  of  Germany  and 
Scythia,  and  far  as  the  sources  of  the  Tanais  and  Borysthenes  ; 
whatsoever  was  manufactured  by  the  skill  of  Europe  and  Asia  ; 
the  corn  of  Egypt  and  the  gems  and  spices  of  the  farthest  India 
— were  brought  by  the  varying  winds  into  the  port  of  Constanti- 
nople, which  for  many  ages  attracted  the  commerce  of  the  ancient 
world.'  But  in  all  the  facts  of  the  historian,  or  even  in  the 
dreams  of  poetry,  no  importation  comparable  with  this  College 
from  America,  has  ever  hitherto  reached  this  Oriental  capital! 
The  means,  the  teachers,  the  flag,  being  given,  what  else  was 
needed  ?  The  gracious  consent  and  sanction  of  the  just  and  toler- 
ant ruler  of  this  realm  ;  and  that  is  accorded.  Next,  the  medium 
of  teaching  is  the  English  language,  which  never  syllabled  the 
idea  of  servility,  and  which  has  been  honorably  represented  in 
many  nations,  including  our  own,  by  the  distinguished  Minister, 
Sir  Edward  Thornton — who  honors  us  by  his  presence.  Given 
these  elements  of  success,  what  an  arena  have  we  here,  whose 
beneficent  result,  whose  blessing,  no  one  can  measure  in  its  far- 
reaching  influences  upon  the  Oriental  mind  ! 

"  As  the  olive-trees  of  the  academy  furnished  oil  for  the  victors 
of  the  Grecian  festivals,  so  this  institution  furnishes  no  crude 
article  like  that  from  Baku,  wherewith  to  strengthen  the  wrestlers 
in  the  intellectual  arena  of  these  elder  lands.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
know  that  your  lamps  are  not  like  those  of  the  foolish  virgins  ; 
but  that,  under  the  direction  of  your  energetic  President  and  his 
associates,  they  are  filled  and  burning  with  the  white  light  of  the 
refined  American  article." 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  graduating  class  and  their  resi- 
dences. What  a  commentary  they  furnish  upon  the  diffusion  of 
American  instruction: 

Constantin  Apostoloff,  of  Yambol;  Michall  G.  Arnaoutoff,  of 
Sliven;  Nigoghos  H.  Boyadjian,  of  Constantinople;  Todor  Dimi- 
trieff,  of  Shtip;  Hovsep  A.  Djedjizian,  of  Adabazar;  Zlatan  A. 
Draganoff,  of  Sistov;  Gullabi  S.  Gulbenkian,  of  Talas;  Ivan  J. 
Kardjieff,  of  Shumla;  Arshag  Kevorkian,  of  Constantinople;  Jor- 
dan Kousseff,  of  Prilip;  Parnag  H.  Minassian,  of  Constantinople; 
Simeon  D.  Mishalcoff,  of  Monastir;    Hovhannes  S.  Missirian,  of 


590  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Panderma;  Levon  Muggerditchian,  of  Constantinople;  Anastase 
Petcoff,  of  Shumla;  Karekin  M.  Shirinian,  of  Galatz;  Dimo  P. 
Smedoffsky,  of  Shumla  ;  Georgey  P.  Stamatoff,  of  Calofer ; 
Peter  Thomoff,  of  Kotel  ;  and  Dimiter  S.  Velcheff,  of  Eski- 
Zaghra. 

More  interesting  than  names  and  homes,  are  the  themes  of 
their  discourses.  Moral  Forces  were  discussed  ;  then  the  Pres- 
ervation of  Nationalities,  significantly,  by  an  Armenian  ;  then 
the  Power  of  Motion  over  Nature,  and  the  Destiny  of  Nations  ; 
the  Power  of  Circumstances  ;  the  Spirit  of  Adventure  ;  Despotic 
and  Constitutional  Government  and  Public  Opinion.  These 
addresses  indicate,  as  they  leap  fresh  from  these  young  Oriental 
scholars,  how  they  intend  to  shape  their  lives  and  to  influence  the 
society  in  which  their  fortunes  may  be  cast. 

The  American  quality  of  the  exercises  was  accented  by  the 
presence  of  our  flag  and  music.  It  is  our  sentiment  that  so 
permeated  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  Asia  Minor,  as  to  give  the 
hope  of  its  resurrection  into  a  better  condition  if  not  into  free  and 
federative  states.  "Joseph,"  said  the  patriarch,  "is  a  fruitful 
bough,"  and,  in  this  respect,  Robert  College  is  not  unlike  the 
favorite  son  of  the  patriarch. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known,  but  for  the  young  orators  who 
copy  Demosthenes,  it  should  be  stated  that  after  the  Persians  had 
conquered  Byzantium  and  other  Greek  cities  of  the  neighborhood, 
it  became  a  conspicuous  practice  of  the  Athenian  to  thunder  his 
anathemas  in  this  direction  until  the  Persian  power  was  over- 
thrown. In  the  days  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  Byzantium  was  an 
ally  of  Athens.  It  stood  a  great  siege  from  Philip.  The  happy 
issue  of  the  siege  was  due  to  the  philippics  of  the  orator.  In  one  of 
his  eloquent  passages  does  he  not,  fearful  of  its  yielding,  urge  the 
Athenians  to  send  succor  to  Byzantium  ?  During  the  siege  so  con- 
secrated to  oratory,  was  there  not  seen  a  luminous  crescent  in  the 
sky?  It  was  not  the  moon,  but  a  light,  perhaps,  from  a  comet.  Still 
it  was  accepted  by  the  Byzantines  as  a  pledge  of  deliverance  ! 
When  Philip  was  repulsed,  the  crescent  became  the  device  of 
this  Greek  city.  It  continued  to  be  so  until  the  Turkish  Conquest 
in  A.  D.  1453.  Whether  the  Turks  had  used  the  crescent  before 
the  Conquest,  or  whether,  as  has  been  alleged,  they  borrowed  it 
from  the  Chinese,  or  whether  its  legend  came  from  this  luminous 
crescent  of  the  sky  ;  whether  the  symbol  came  from  one  point  of 


THE  COLLEGE  AND  THE  CASTLES. 


591 


the  compass  and   sky,   or  another— certainly  it   is  a  beautiful 
emblem  for  an  ensign  or  a  nation. 

The  castle  of  Roumeli-Hissar,  every  stone  of  which  is  sentient 
with  sermons,  and  into  whose  eyrie  I  have  penetrated,  to  the  dis- 
turbmg  of  its  birds  of  prey — was  once  the  prison  in  which  the 
rebellious  characters  of  the  Janizaries  were  chastened.  An 
embrasure  on  the  lower  part  of  the  rampart  is  still  filled  by  a 
large  gun.  This  gun  was  always  fired  so  as  to  advise  the  author- 
ities at  the  Porte  that  the  criminal    whom  they  had  condemned 


THE   AMERICAN    ROBERT  COLLEGE. 


had  been  executed.  This  castle  is  the  gentle  neighbor  of  our 
American  college  ;  but  it  is  not  dorainani,  as  of  old,  on  the 
Bosporus.  By  a  happy  combination  of  some  sketches,  I  am 
enabled  to  present  the  College  upon  its  lofty  site  between  these 
renowned  and  conspicuous  towers. 

Another  of  our  recreations  is  that  in  connection  with  the 
Home  School  at  Scutari.  Its  Commencen:ent  takes  place  during 
the  same  busy  week.  It  is  also  honored  by  the  presence  of  our 
naval  officers,  the  professors  of  the  College,  the  female  teachers, 


592 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


and  others  interested  in  its  success.  Never  have  I  seen,  at 
home,  an  institution  more  thoroughly  American  in  all  its  appoint- 
ments, unless  we  except  the  foreign  languages  in  which  many  of 
the  compositions  and  speeches  are  made.  At  the  conclusion  of 
the  Minister's  remarks  upon  this  occasion,  many  gentlemen  of 
various  nationalities  speak,  in  Turkish,  Greek,  Armenian  and 
Bulgarian.  The  exercises  conclude  with  diplomas,  music,  bou- 
quets and  applause.  A  collation  is  provided.  Our  American 
launch  bears  many  of  the  guests  across  the  Bosporus,  out  of  Asia 
and  its  refiaements,  into  Europe,  and  its  selfishness  and  grossness. 

How  this  American  school  at  Scutari  performs  its  d^aty  as  the 
educator  of  other  races,  will  be  seen  by  the  names  of  those  who 
graduated,  and  the  titles  of  their  graduating  compositions.  Some 
of  the  names  are  as  follows: 

Aroosiag  G.  Serapian,  Fota  V.  Dugmedjieva,  Anka  T.  Naide- 
nova,  Genka  N.  Tapchileshtova,  Heranoosh  Aghlaganian,  Manoo- 
shag  H.  Besharian,  Paris  M.  Kiatibian,  Stefanka  J.  Beleva, 
Tomnie  P.  Yazmadjian  and  Yevkine  Balukdjia. 

These  euphoniously  named  young  ladies  discussed  Emblems; 
Circumstances  making  the  Man,  which  included  the  Woman;  La 
Libert^;  Elbows — a  very  droll  composition;  the  Life  of  a  Word; 
True  Greatness;  The  Heir  of  Nineteen  Centuries,  etc.  Most  of 
the  subjects  had  reference  to  the  Orient.  They  were  admirably 
presented.  The  young  ladies  were  dressed  in  white  ;  each,  like 
Una,  making  sunshine  in  a  shady  place;  only  that  their  great, 
black  Armenian,  Bulgarian  and  Grecian  eyca  gave  the  light  of  a 
"  night  set  thick  with  stars." 

The  exercises  conclude  with  a  class  song.  It  still  lingers  in 
my  memory;  for  it  spoke  of  prophetic  peace  and  the  heavenly 
hills,  and  of  the  angels,  who  joined  in  the  chorus  ! 

There  is  much  trouble  brewing  about  closing  the  American 
schools  of  Asia  Minor.  Constant  complaints  come  up  to  the 
Legation  from  the  consulates  on  that  head.  The  American 
Protestant  schools  are  not  alone  in  suffering  from  the  recent 
intolerance  of  the  Mahometans,  in  certain  localities  where  they 
predominate  over  the  Christians,  and  where  they  are  aloof  from 
the  central  authority.  Shortly  after  the  closing  of  the  Protestant 
schools  in  Syria,  an  official  order  was  sent  out  by  the  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction  to  the  provinces,  to  close  all  the  Jesuit  schools 
established  without  official  permission,  and  to  refuse  thenceforth 


GREEK  JEALOUSY  OF  AMERICAN  EDUCA  TORS. 


593 


permission  for  the  foundation  of  new  schools  by  this  Society. 
The  same  order  was  issued  about  our  American  schools.  This, 
however,  under  our  energetic  remonstrance,  has  been  reme- 
died to  a  great  extent.  If  the  United  States  had  more  power  to 
its  naval  elbow,  there  would  be  less  occasion  for  the  constant 
protests  of  the  American  Consuls  and  Minister.  The  secret 
incentives  for  these  anti-educational  vexations  I  have  not  fath- 
omed. I  suspect  the  Greek  or  the  Armenian;  and  not  without 
reason.     Still,  the  allegation  is — Mahometan  bigotry. 

There  are  five  millions  of  Greeks  in  Turkey.  They  comj^ete 
with  all  ether  races  in  their  educational  systems.  They  are  not 
disturbed  by  the  government.  Why  should  other  Christians  be 
disturbed  ?  I  am  proud  to  publish  the  encomium  m  the  language 
of  an  intelligent  English  official  in  Turkey,  upon  "  the  moral 
influence  that  America  is  exercising  in  the  East,  through  the 
quiet  but  dignified  and  determined  policy  of  its  Legation  at  Con- 
stantinople, free  from  political  intrigues  and  rivalry.' 

"That  policy,"  to  quote  again,  "  would  guard  with  a  jeal- 
ous care  the  rights  and  safety  of  the  missionaries,  who  are  loved 
and  respected  wherever  they  settle.  Their  influence  is  felt  for 
the  welfare  of  all,  in  the  remotest  corners  of  Turkey.  It  is 
America  that  will  be  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  all  Christians, 
for  her  ready  aid  in  elevating  the  masses  to  the  dignity  of  civilized 
beings." 

But  on  the  educational  question,  I  fear  the  Greeks  and  their 
bearing.  Have  they  not  pre-empted  the  Oriental  land  for  the 
Christian  faith  ?  How  dare  Yankees  like  Dr.  Hamlin,  Dr.  Long 
or  President  Washburn  invade  their  prescriptive,  orthodox  and 
apostolic  premises  ? 

Still,  I  did  not  fail  to  note  that  Western  Asia  is  undergoing  its 
periodic,  if  not  spasmodic,  Moslem  struggle  for  sustentation 
against  alien  education  and  other  advancing  influences.  How  far 
the  firmans  of  the  Ministers  agree  with  the  Sultan's  idea,  and  how 
far  the  latter  is  influenced  by  the  improgressive  hierarchic  element 
in  Stamboul — it  is  certain  that  quietly,  and  in  remote  sections  like 
the  Taurus  and  Nusaireyeh  mountains,  where  the  intense  Mahom- 
etan zealot  lives — afar  from  the  centres  of  diplomatic  and  gov- 
ernmental influences — there  is  a  concerted  effort  to  destroy  the 
influence  of  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  teachers.  Recently  the 
telegraph  is  used  by  the  Turk;   better  roads  are  being  built  by 


594  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

him;  and  the  best  repeating  rifles  arm  the  soldiers;  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, the  jealousy  of  foreign  education  takes  the  forceful  form 
of  suppressing  the  foreign  schools.  The  schools  near  the  sea  are 
not  harmed  or  harassed.  When  menaced,  they  are  able  to  coun- 
teract the  effort. 

Along  with  these  efforts  the  old  mosques  and  holy  places  are 
restored.  The  Exchequer  of  the  Porte  is  not  plethoric,  but  it  dis- 
burses freely  in  behalf  of  new  Moslem  establishments.  It  aids,  by 
its  meagre  means,  the  regeneration  of  the  Moslem  faith  and  its 
structures.  Even  the  little  shrines,  or  wileys — the  tombs  of  saints, 
covered  with  the  votive  threads  and  rags  of  pious  devotees — are 
rounding  into  new  proportions.  Or,  rather,  the  dead  saints  are  all 
alive  again,  to  inspire  the  Moslem.  There  is  an  earnestness 
about  this  revival  of  the  Ottoman  religion,  that  indicates  an  appre- 
hension of  a  coming  conflict,  in  which  the  banner  of  the  Pro- 
phet may  be  flung  to  the  breeze;  if  not  in  Europe,  then  in  Asia. 
It  means  a  consolidated  Ottoman  empire.  It  means  a  further 
lease  of  power  for  the  Sultans.  It  means — well,  it  means  busi- 
ness. I  trust  that  my  successor,  with  the  aid  of  our  dragoman, 
may  be  able  to  cope  with  this  new  phase  of  the  Islamic  or  East- 
ern problem. 

Here  I  beg  to  tender  to  the  good  men  of  the  American  mis- 
sions my  acknowledgments  for  their  testimonial  to  the  President, 
in  eulogy  of  my  feeble  efforts  in  their  behalf. 

The  spirit  of  civilization  may  sometimes  be  tested  by  progress 
in  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic — the  three  "  r's."  The  school- 
master has  been  abroad,  even  in  Turkey.  In  spite  of  adverse 
administration,  education  is  thriving.  It  has  even  invaded  the 
harem.  I  have  a  note  written  by  a  Sultana  to  a  commissioner, 
who  was  ordered  to  do  some  shopping  for  her.  It  shows  the 
remarkable  advancement  of  the  East  in  our  English  tongue.  I 
insert  it  here,  verbatim,  and  for  the  edification  of  those  who  are 
striving  for  a  better  cult! 

It  is  a  note  from  Adile  Sultana,  the  betrothed  of  Abbas  Pasha, 
to  her  commissioner.     It  is  dated  at  Constantinople: 

"  My  Noble  Friend  : 

"Here  are  the  featherses  sent.  My  soul,  my  noble  friend,  are  there  no 
other  featherses  leaved  in  the  shop  besides  these  featherses?  &  these  feather- 
ses remains,  &  these  featherses  are  ukly.  They  are  very  dear;  who  byses 
deses?     And,  my  noble  friend,  vi^e  want  a  noat  from  yourself  :  those  you  brot 


ENGLISH— AS  "SHE"  IS  WRITTEN. 


595 


last  tim,  those,  you  sees,  were  very  beautiful;  we  had  searched;  my  soul,  I 
want  featherses  again,  of  those  featherses.  In  Kalada  there  is  plenty  of  feather. 
Whatever  bees,  I  only  want  beautiful  featherses  :  I  want  featherses  of  every 
desolation  to-morrow." 

This  specimen  of  improvement  in  English  is  not  a  fair  sample 
of  what  the  Oriental  can  do,  I  had  a  servant  whose  name  was 
founded  on  a  rock — Peter ;  Pedro  or  Pierre.  Although  Pedro 
had  been  with  our  Consul-General,  Eugene  Schuyler,  in  Con- 
stantinople, he  had  lost  all  that  he  had  gained  in  English  by  this 
scholarly  association.  He  came  to  me  with  good  testimonials  of 
his  ability  as  steward,  linguist,  accountant  and  purveyor.  He  had 
the  fidelity  of  a  Slav.  He  was  born  on  the  Adriatic.  He  was  a 
Dalmatian.  Once,  when  I  happened  to  remark  that  he  was  a 
Dalmatian — good  serviteur — he  never  appreciated  the  subtle  pro- 
fanity of  the  observation.  Two  years,  through  sickness  and 
health,  at  Therapia,  in  Constantinople  and  on  the  isle  of  Prin- 
kipo,  he  was  literally  my  body-guard.  He  spoke  French  admira- 
bly; modern  Greek  like  an  Athenian;  Turkish  like  an  Effendi; 
and  Italian  like  a  tenor.  Russian,  Servian  and  Bulgarian,  as 
connate  with  his  own  difficult  Dalmatian  tongue,  he  had  easily 
conquered.  He  had  been  with  an  engineering  company,  as 
commissary  upon  the  heights  of  the  classic  Greek  Olympus.  He 
was  fitted  for  all  the  emergencies  of  the  lower  world,  except  that 
he  did  not  know  the  English  language.  But  this  ignorance,  for 
me,  was  his  best  qualification.  Why  ?  Because  I  wanted  him  to 
talk  French,  so  that  I  could  learn  of  him. 

One  day,  the  genial  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Said  Pasha, 
said  to  me: 

"  Excellency,  why  do  you  not  practise  your  French  on  your 
servant?  When  I  was  Minister  at  Berlin,  no  one  knows  the  elo- 
quence of  the  domestic  rhetoric  which  I  first  tried  on  my  serv- 
ants, before  the  Chancellor,  Prince  Bismarck,  or  the  Kaiser 
listened  to  my  Teutonic  efforts." 

So  I  reckoned  upon  Pedro  for  my  French.  If  he  had  spoken 
English,  where,  in  that  case,  was  the  quidiox  the  quo,  in  his  service 
and  its  compensation  ?  While  at  Prinkipo,  he  began  to  creep 
stealthily  upon  my  caution.  I  had  learned  English  in  Congress. 
It  was  not  good  English;  but  it  was  all  I  had.  Pedro  longed  for 
it.  He  began  to  pick  up  my  English  words  while  waiting  on  the 
table  and  elsewhere.    This  would  not  do.    I  was  not  his  employee; 


596 


DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 


he  was  mine.  I  could  not  correct  this  tendency,  until  one  day — 
happy  thought! — as  we  are  walking  over  the  piney  mountain  to  the 
Monastery  of  St.  George  in  Prinkipo.  I  commend  his  polygloti- 
cal  acquisitions,  and  especially  his  essays  in  English.  He  is 
pleased,  and  smiles.     I  say  to  him  : 

"  Pierre,  tell  Madame,  when  she  inquires,  about  our  delightful 
walk." 

He  said  that  he  would.     I  add  : 

"Say  to  her,  good  Pierre:  'We  have   had   a   d d  good 

promenade.'  She  will  be  pleased  to  know  of  your  acquisition  of 
elegant  English,  and  of  our  nice  time." 

He  said  that  he  would.  I  train  him  carefully  en  route.  He 
said  it !     In  fact,  he  repeated  it  several  times. 

The  consequences,  when  the  Madame  hears  his  remarks, 
were  never  entirely  obliterated.  The  Madame,  being  Puritanic^ 
is  simply  stunned.  Pierre  insists  that  "His  Excellence  had 
instructed  him."  He  insists  in  vain.  He  comes  to  me  for  expli- 
cation and  consolation.     I  explain  : 

"  Damnus,  good  Pierre,  means,  in  Latin,  a  loss.  It  is  a  famil- 
iar word.  It  is  easily  naturalized  by  the  English.  It  is  handy 
in  emergencies."     I  continue: 

"  Pierre,  you  have  heard  the  Baron,  whom  you  accompanied  to 
Mount  Olympus,  speak  of  Am?,ttx-dajn  ?  "     He  had. 

"  You  have  heard  of  Kotter-dam  ?  "  He  had. 

I  enumerated  other  like  profane  Dutch  haunts;  adding  a 
hydrostatic  disquisition  upon  mill  and  other  dams.  He  swallows 
all;  but  he  cannot  make  out  what  His  "Excellence"  meant  by 
the  exceptional  expression,  until  I  mention  that  "  Dalmatian"  is 
only  another  but  intenser  form  of  the  same  liquid  linguistic 
accomplishment. 

Strange  to  say,  I  could  never  get  him  to  learn  English  of  me 
any  more.  He  taught  me  French  after  that  with  great  assiduity. 
The  Madame  had  demoralized  my  tuition  in  English. 

Poor  Pedro!  He  followed  us  from  Varna,  and  left  us  when 
within  seven  days  from  America!  America — his  hope  and  goal  ! 
The  last  I  saw  of  him,  he  was  using  his  handkerchief  with  eye 
and  hand,  to  weep  and  to  wave,  as  he  stood  at  the  end  of  the 
dock  at  Havre  to  bid  us  ' '  godspeed,"  when  the  Champagne 
began  to  breast  the  Atlantic  billows. 

What  trouble  he  had,  by  flood  and  field,  to  reach  his  subse- 


ORIENTAL  REPUBLIC  OF  LETTERS.  597 

quent  post  at  Teheran — he  wrote  to  me  in  pure  and  perfect 
French;  but  after  some  time  with  Mr.  Pratt,  under  the  American 
Legation  at  Teheran,  I  received  a  remarkable  letter,  which  is  a 
sign  and  proof  of  his  progress  in  the  only  language  which  he  does 
not  understand;  to  wit,  American-English. 
It  reads  literally  as  follows: 

"  My  inestimably  Excellency,  mon  premier  devoir  est  de  vous  demander  de 
voire  bonne  sant6.  I  suppose,  Excellency,  your  very  well  in  America,  and  your 
not  bad  at  Prinkipo.     I  suppose  mit  chants  '  Pepini,'  for  moment." 

He  used  to  hear  me  sing  a  little  Greek  air  at  Prinkipo: 
^'  When  we  are  all  happy  on  that  Isle  of  the  Blest."  I  used  to 
call  him  Alexis  Delatour,  from  a  French  fable  about  a  lazy  serv- 
ant, and  thus  he  writes  about  Alexis  and  Pharaoh  (Rameses  II.), 
whom  we  saw  in  pictures  throughout  Egypt,  and  whose  mummied 
form  we  looked  at  in  the  Boulak  Museum  at  Cairo. 

"Excellency,  I  am  not  Alexis,  in  Persian  capital.  I  suppose  Alexis  stope 
in  Constantinople,  mit  Mchmed  and  Compagnie.  Remeses  stoj:)e  in  Egypt  mit 
Hassan  Hassan.  I  am  yours  wraith  every  Excellency,  and  your  wraith  my 
plaise— tanks  for  our  peper,  for  my  it  is  very  great— and  very  great  souvenir 
of  your  ExceUency. 

"Excellency,  lam  wraith  naou  passably  Inglisch.  Je  prie  toujours  pour 
votre  santd,  esperant  que  je  vous  reverai  encore  une  fois.  I  am  of  health  your 
bon  gar9on,  bad  boy.  Pierre. 

"  Excuse  my  plaise.  Excellency,  my  liberty  of  dis  leter.  Votre  tres  recon- 
naissant  serviteur,  " ." 

Mehmet  is  our  Kavass;  the  Hassan  to  whom  Pedro  refers  is 
the  dragoman  of  our  Consulate  in  Egypt,  who  accompanied  us 
to  Nubia.  From  him,  also  improving  in  English,  I  have  received 
an  "epistle  to  be  known  and  read  of  all  men."  Let  M.  Maspero 
endeavor  to  decipher  this  sacred  glyph  : 

"  Excellency  :  I  am  very  happy  to  write  these  few  lines  which  could  recog- 
nize my  longings  to  you,  and,  I  believe,  that  it  is  about  you.  We  hope  that 
your  Excellency  and  Mrs.  Cox  are  well,  our  health  is  good  and  wish  you  the 
same  forever;  we  shall  be  very  happy  if  we  could  have  the  chance  of  receiving 
a  letter  from  your  Excellency  again,  of  which  we  can  learn  that  your  Excel- 
lency are  well ;  waiting  patiently  to  see  your  Excellency  here  again  in  Cairo, 
do  I  send  herewith  three  portraits  of  my  new  suit." 

Need  I  apologize  to  my  readers  for  these  interesting  scripts 
from  the  republic  of  letters,  as  illustrative  of  educational  progress 
under  adverse  circumstances  ;  or,  rather,  should  not  my  apolo- 
gies be  tendered  to  the  authors  of  the  epistles  ? 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

CONTRARIETY   OF  OPINION  ABOUT  THE  FATE   OF   TURKEY. 

There  is  in  the  Orient  a  halo  of  mysticism.  There  never  was 
a  country  as  to  which  there  is  so  much  contrariety  of  opinion,  as 
to  its  condition  and  destiny.  One  can  say  with  Shakespeare's 
Juliet,  with  every  recurrence  of  the  Oriental  question,  "What 
storm  is  this  which  blows  so  contrary?"  When  Juliet  heard  of 
the  death  of  Tybalt,  supposing  it  was  Romeo,  her  sad  and  am- 
biguous fancy  suggested  such  contradictions  as  the  fate  of 
Turkey  seems  to  occasion:  "A  serpent  heart,  with  a  flowering 
face,  a  dragon  in  a  cave  of  beauty,  a  beautiful  tyrant  and  an 
angelical  fiend,  a  dove- feathered  raven,  a  wolfish-ravening  lamb,  a 
damned  saint  and  an  honorable  villain." 

A  few  years  ago  a  distinguished  countryman  prophesied  that 
the  Turkish  empire  was  coming  to  an  end,  and  that  its  four  hun- 
dred years  were  being  wound  up  in  a  catastrophe.  But  the  end 
did  not  come.  It  does  not  hasten  to  come.  Has  the  imperturb- 
able Turk  retired  upon  Asia  ?  Is  he  degenerate  or  regenerate — 
or  what  ?  Are  these  contrary  winds  to  have  harmonious  vent  and 
gentle  cadence?  When  such  dispassionate  and  unimaginative 
observers  thus  fail  in  prophecy,  what  is  to  be  said  of  the  state- 
ments of  others  less  intelligent  and  calm  ? 

I  pick  up  a  volume  about  Constantinople.  It  is  by  De  Amicis. 
It  is  the  seventh  edition.  It  has  had  a  wonderful  success.  Its 
success  is  owing  to  its  poetic  extravagance  and  its  equivocal  voice. 
While  there  are  many  contrary  winds  fluttering  its  leaves,  the 
facts  and  the  outcome  are  not  in  harmony.  For  example:  Within 
ten  pages  I  find  two  chapters  about  the  theatre.  In  them,  all  the 
worst  possible  is  said  about  the  songs,  the  highly  spiced  jokes  and 
the  impudent  gestures  of  the  Turk.  They  are  presented  to  dis- 
lodge the  Turk  from  his  dignity  and  to  betray  the  grossness  of 
his  sensual  life.  Yet  in  the  proximate  paragraph  is  it  not  said 
that  the  Turk  hides  his  sensuality,  that  he  is  rarely  accompanied 

598 


SCANDALS  DENIED.  cng 

• 
in  the  streets  by  a  woman,  that  he  rarely  looks  at  one,  and  still 
more  rarely  speaks  to  one  ?  You  cannot  ask  after  the  health  of 
his  wife.  By  appearances  he  is  reckoned  austere  and  chaste,  and 
yet  this  Turk,  who  blushes  when  asked  about  his  wife,  will  send 
his  children,  says  the  writer,  to  witness  the  filthy  obscenities  of  the 
theatre.  This  is  a  contradiction  altogether  too  grotesque.  The 
stories  about  the  Turk,  "foul-mouthed  as  a  fish-wife  and  wanton 
as  a  satyr,"  are  perversions.  It  is  the  exaggeration  of  one  who 
could  not,  or  would  not,  see  the  difference  between  the  modern 
Alhambra  of  London  and  the  ancient  Alhambra  of  Grenada. 

The  same  writer  indulges  in  comment  as  to  the  tendency  of 
the  Turk  toward  intoxication.  It  is  impossible  for  one  who  has 
lived  in  Constantmople  to  believe  this.  The  Koran  is  not  set 
aside.  This  writer  may  select  many  men  of  history,  even  the 
Sultans  and  the  wives  of  Sultans,  who  reveled  in  Tokay,  Cyprus 
and  Sherry  wines.  He  may  recall  to  our  mind  Suleiman  the 
First,  who  burned  in  the  harbor  all  the  vessels  which  were  loaded 
with  wine,  and  who  died  while  drunk,  from  an  arrow  by  one  of  his 
own  soldiers.  All  these  pictures  of  the  Turk  as  a  ferocious  hypo- 
crite, staggering  about  the  streets  or  the  harem,  are  a  libel  which 
is  only  to  be  accounted  for  because  of  the  wild  imagination  of 
the  author. 

It  has  been  written,  by  the  same  pen,  that  the  Osmanli  were 
scandalizing  the  Koran  by  debauchery,  and  that  the  fruit  so  care- 
fully forbidden  is  rendered  more  tempting  by  the  "prohibition;" 
and  yet,  upon  another  page,  we  have  the  information  that,  in  the 
Ramazan  season,  the  same  writer  had  endeavored  to  bribe  the 
boatman  of  his  caique  upon  the  Golden  Horn  to  eat  before  the 
lawful  moment.  He  confesses  that  the  Turk  always  answered 
"  Yok,  yok,  yok  !  "  "  No,  no,  no  ! "  and  invariably  jx)inted  to  the 
sun,  waiting  for  that  luminary  to  descend  before  breaking  his 
fast,  under  the  law  of  the  Koran. 

As  it  is  not  fair  to  judge  Turkey  by  Constantinople,  so  it  is 
not  fair  to  judge  the  qualities  of  the  Turk  by  what  is  said  of  him 
at  the  capital;  for  here  there  are  intense  pro  and  anti  Turkish 
proclivities  and  prejudices. 

Mr.  James  Baker,  in  writing  about  Turkey,  where  he  had  been 
a  visitor,  asks  about  the  integrity  of  a  certain  Pasha,  who  is  a 
government  officer.  He  receives  for  answer  a  glowing  eulogy 
from  the  friends  of  the  old  Turk.     He  thereu|X)n  instinctively 


6oO  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

raises  his  eyes  to  the  shoulders  of  the  Pasha,  expecting  to  see 
the  budding  of  angelic  wings;  but  on  turning  to  another  old 
inhabitant,  and  putting  the  same  question,  he  receives  such  a 
reply  as  makes  him  turn  his  inspection  to  the  Pasha's  slippers  in 
search  of  the  cloven  foot.  The  truth,  in  these  matters,  lies 
between  the  extreme  opinions.  Doubtless,  that  Pasha  had  done 
many  just  acts.  Doubtless,  he  had  been  more  or  less  influenced, 
if  not  corrupted,  by  backsheesh.  And  thus,  this  mixture  of  poison 
with  the  pure  fluid  creates  a  divergence  of  opinion  very  common 
and  very  unjust  to  the  people  of  this  country. 

If  the  Custom-house  be  a  sign  of  civilization,  and  its  rigors 
mark  refinement,  then  the  Turk,  by  the  facilities  that  he  grants,  is 
not  entitled  to  the  honor  of  a  civilized  nation.  What  is  his  cus- 
tom tax  on  commerce  ?  A  small  per  cent. — say  half  per  cent,  on 
exports.  On  all  articles  imported  the  tax  is  uniform.  It  is  eight 
per  cent,  ad  valorem.  As  things  go  in  civilized  lands,  this  is  a 
sign  of  barbarism. 

An  American  friend  coming  through  a  Custom-house  in  Tur- 
key, indulges  in  a  diatribe  against  the  government.  He  has  some 
Custom-house  trouble.  His  baggage  is  searched.  The  only  dis- 
turbance made  is  when  the  officers  spy  a  big  red  apple!  This  he 
has  brought  from  America.  He  protests  against  its  seizure;  but  in 
vain.  He  demands,  in  his  unknown  tongue,  the  reason  why  the 
paradisaical  fruit  is  contraband.  The  case,  as  it  transpires,  is 
comical.  The  officers  seem  finally  to  understand  my  friend. 
They  give  him,  as  the  explanation  of  the  cruel  seizure  of  his  big 
red,  tempting  apple,  that  they  are  executing  the  law  against  phyl- 
loxera— a  disease  of  grapes  I  No  doubt,  the  tempting  apple, 
which  is  lost  to  my  friend,  is  a  gain  to  the  Custom-house  officers. 
Doubtless  they  were  consumers.  Besides,  is  it  not  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  worst  feature  of  the  Turkish  customs  system,  of  which 
no  American  will  complain  when  he  looks  first  at  home  and  then 
remembers  that,  while  our  tariff  is  over  forty  per  cent.,  for  the 
articles  of  our  American  missionaries  there  is  in  Turkey  a  free 
entry  ? 

There  is  much  said  about  the  Turk  being  a  spoiler.  There  is 
some  evidence  of  the  iconoclasm  of  the  Mahometan,  whether  Arab 
or  Turk.  Did  he  not  deface  the  tombs  and  temples  in  Egypt  ? 
Has  he  not  destroyed  the  ruins  of  Greek  art  and  empire,  so  that 
he  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  Oriental  vandal  ? 


GREEK,  OR  TURKf  6oi 

Let  the  tourist  visit  Baalbec,  whose  massive  masonry  has 
defied  time  and  earthquake,  storm  and  battle.  By  whom  and 
why  has  such  Cyclopean  architecture  been  mutilated  ?  He  will 
be  told  that  the  work  of  destruction  was  performed  by  Chris- 
tians; for  were  not  the  temples  of  Baalbec  dedicated  to  another 
religion  ?  Because  the  Sun  was  here  worshipped — the  innocent 
Christians  endeavored  to  eclipse  the  radiance  of  the  glorious  orbl 

For  many  years  it  was  the  fashion  to  prefer  the  Greek  to  the 
Turk,  and  d  fortiori,  the  Christian,  to  the  Moslem.  This  par- 
tiality depended  on  the  political  vicissitudes  growing  out  of  the 
selfish  interests  of  nations  in  the  East.  After  a  while,  the  Greek 
was  loathed  and  the  Turk  was  liked;  and  to-day,  as  recent  events 
in  East  Roumelia  have  shown,  the  Turk  has  received  more  sym- 
pathy from  the  Christian  world  than  the  Greek,  who  declaimed  so 
ineptly  and  bitterly  about  the  progress  which  Bulgaria  was  permit- 
ted to  make  by  the  coup  d'etat  of  Prince  Alexander,  and  which  the 
Greek,  by  the  treaty  of  Berlin,  was  not  permitted  to  share. 

After  the  battle  of  Navarino  the  Turk  was  regarded  by  Euroj^e 
with  more  or  less  contempt;  but  when  afterward  he  contested 
with  the  Giant  of  the  North,  alone,  and  began  to  reform  his  gov- 
ernment, in  the  interests  of  social  and  political  order,  the  Tftrk 
then  was  another  person. 

If  we  would  regard  simply  the  transient  observations  which 
the  press  of  Europe  make  about  Turkey,  it  would  seem  that 
the  Turkish  empire  reeks  with  corruption;  and  yet,  in  order  to 
prove  to  the  contrary,  the  next  gush  of  the  observer  is  that  of 
partiality  for  this  unspeakable  and  corrupt  being.  He  is  re- 
garded as  a  man  whose  traditional  honesty  remains,  although 
surrounded  by  mercenary  self-seekers  and  worshippers  of  the 
"golden  image."  For  the  Turk  himself,  take  him  in  general,  he 
has  a  large-hearted  hospitality,  which  does  not  seek  its  own 
aggrandizement.  He  is  to  be  considered,  not  at  the  capital,  but 
as  diffused  throughout  the  realm,  of  which  the  Sultan  is  the 
best  representative. 

The  Turk  is  regarded  as  a  man  who  has  risen  to  power  by 
means  of  brutal  force.  That  alone  is  regarded  as  the  lever  of  his 
political  and  religious  strength;  but  in  another  breath,  which  blows 
contrary,  he  is  regarded  as  one  who  trusts  to  his  corruptness  for 
his  success. 

To  some  extent  both  views  are  right.     Surrounded  by  enemies 


602  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

who  seek  to  despoil  him,  he  is  wary  and  diplomatic.  He  plays 
one  Power  against  another,  and,  while  entirely  honest,  he  may 
seem  otherwise  when  in  contact  with  or  instructed  by  the  Chris- 
tians who  surround  him. 

It  has  been  said,  again,  that  he  has  no  religion ;  only  a  ritual 
and  a  forgery.  If  that  be  said  of  him  who  prays  five  or  seven 
times  a  day,  and  regards  the  unity  of  Allah  as  worthy  of  perpetual 
devotion  by  orison  and  alms,  what  can  be  said  of  the  other  relig- 
ionists, who  live  by  Turkish  toleration,  and  who,  if  not  agnostic 
or  hypocritical,  do  not  show  that  devotion  of  which  the  Turk  is  an 
ensample. 

Again,  it  is  said  that  the  Turks  hate  the  Christians  with  such 
bitterness  that  they  cannot  do  justice  to  them.  But  is  it  true,  when 
we  regard  the  "  Capitulations,"  which  pronounced  for  religious 
freedom  and  Christian  rights,  and  which  were  made  in  the  eras  of 
Ottoman  strength  and  empire — made  even  before  Roger  Williams 
or  Lord  Baltimore  recognized  soul-liberty,  or  before  our  Bills  of 
Right  were  engrafted  on  the  American  Constitutions. 

One  of  my  friends,  in  writing  recently  abou  t  Turkey,  has  spoken 
of  Abdul  Hamid  II.,  the  present  Sultan,  as  the  last  of  the  Sultans. 
Of  what  proofs  does  he  thus  speak  ?  For  the  last  one  hundred 
years  the  same  parrot-phrases  have  issued  from  the  lips  of  those 
who  long  to  have  Turkey,  or  portions  of  it,  as  their  own.  Many 
decades  may  still  roll  around  before  the  Russian,  the  Greek,  the 
English,  or  the  Austrian  will  unfurl  their  flag  on  the  dome  of  St> 
Sophia,  or  on  the  tower  of  the  Seraskierate. 

It  is  said  that  if  the  Turk  had  less  of  the  Koran  he  would  have 
less  badness  in  his  nature;  and  then,  again,  that  in  so  far  as  he 
copies  Christian  precept  and  practice,  and  departs  from  the  Koran^ 
he  degenerates.  The  tourist  often  repeats  the  trite  idea  that  the 
Turk  is  strong  by  reason  of  his  fanaticism,  and  yet,  that  his  sys- 
tem is  that  of  religious  weakness.  It  is  the  old  trick.  Give  the 
dog  a  bad  name  in  order  to  hang  him.  If  we  could  get  rid  of  the 
European  prejudices,  which  come  to  us  through  books  and  news- 
papers, we  would  read  abetter  horoscope  out  of  Turkish  character 
and  history,  and  there  might  be  other  nations  who  would  be 
regarded  as  unspeakable.  The  nation  which  repelled  Russia  at 
Kars,  and  which  held  Plevna  against  the  attack  of  the  Slav,  is  not 
a  nation  to  be  despised  when  the  great  conflict  shall  come  in  the 
Orient 


604  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

Turkey  is  forever  called  the  "sick  man,"  or  the  "dying 
man."  If  he  be  sick,  he  is  a  long  time  in  dying.  It  would  be 
very  difficult  for  any  one  to  give  the  death-rate.  The  ordinary 
impression  in  America,  taken  from  foreign  sources,  is  that  the 
Turk  is  the  foot-ball  of  European  diplomacy,  and  as  lacking  in 
all  liberal  and  reformatory  elements.  Such  ideas  are  regardless 
of  his  early  and  recent  liberalities.  It  forgets  that  within  sight 
of  the  Palace  of  Yildiz,  the  American  Robert  College  dominates 
the  landscape  and  Bosporus  !  Why  should  Turkey  be  counted  so 
illiberal  in  her  polity  ?  Did  she  not,  at  Kataya,  shelter  the  Hun- 
garian patriots  against  Russian  and  Austrian  vengeance  ?  Who 
are  the  people  that  call  the  Turk  so  sick,  so  improgressive  and  so 
bad  ?  Are  they  of  the  number  who  are  waiting  for  his  decease  ? 
By  what  right  do  they  expect  to  share  in  the  general  spoliation  ? 
Have  they  any  better  right  to  Turkey  in  .Europe,  or  Turkey  in 
Asia,  than  the  Turk  himself  ?  It  is  said  that  the  Turk  is  only 
encamped  in  Europe;  that  he  speaks  of  himself  as  apart  from 
Europe;  that  the  cypress-trees  in  Scutari,  across  the  Bosporus, 
are  his  chosen  "  shades;"  that  his  caiques  are  ever  ready  to  bear 
him  to  Asia  when  the  grand  rising  shall  take  place  that  dethrones 
him  in  Europe  ;  and  that  his  traditions,  religion  and  tendencies 
point  toward  Asia  as  his  future  home.  This  is  the  merest  trifling 
and  trash,  I  am  yet  to  hear  the  first  Turk  intimate  that  he  expects, 
on  this  account,  to  be  buried  at  Scutari.  Besides,  is  he  not 
replacing  the  eighty  thousand  caiques,  which  I  saw  upon  the 
Bosporus  thirty-five  years  ago,  with  steam-vessels,  which  run  up 
and  down,  and  zig-zag  between  two  continents  ? 

The  Turk  is  not  what  he  was  in  the  reign  of  Suleiman  the  Mag- 
nificent. True;  but  has  he  not  grown  stronger  in  the  last  few  de- 
cades? The  more  he  is  pressed  on  every  side  by  those  who 
would  divide  his  territory  for  their  own  benefit,  the  more  compact 
is  his  government  and  the  more  permanent  his  rule. 

It  is  often  said,  as  a  sign  of  reproach,  that  millions  of  other 
races  are  governed  by  a  handful  of  Turks  at  Constantinople, 
either  directly  from  the  Porte  or  through  its  vilayets.  If  this 
be  the  case,  is  it  a  sign  of  decadence  ?  If  we  take  the  word  of  the 
Levantine,  the  Greek,  or  the  Armenian,  we  might  infer  that  the 
Turk  was  a  perpetual  laggard,  and  yet  we  know  that  he  has  made 
wonderful  advancement.  He  is  being  for  ever  bullied  and  en- 
croached upon;   but  in  spite  of  his  stubborn  nature,  he  has  not 


EARTHQUAKES  AND  OTffFJl  HINDRANCES.  605 

been  unmindful  to  make  efforts  for  more  liberal  institutions.  Do 
you  point  to  Cyprus  as  being  transferred  to  England,  and  Egypt 
as  practically  gone  from  the  Ottoman  ?  Say  what  we  may,  Cyprus 
is  no  longer  a  hindrance  to  Turkey,  and  Crete  has  an  autonomy 
which  some  of  our  own  States  may  copy.  Her  legislature  is  of  a 
composite  quality,  but  the  autonomy  of  the  island  is  preserved, 
and  contentment  is  the  lot  of  the  mixed  population,  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  the  Greek  consuls  and  emissaries  to  disturb  i;.  As  for 
Egypt,  she  is — under  the  present  arrangement,  which  seems 
temporary — less  a  source  of  weakness  and  menace  to  Turkey 
than  she  was  in  the  time  of  Mehemet  Ali,  who  threatened  Con- 
stantinople, 

Is  it  said  that  the  earthquake  is  an  enemy  to  Turkish  progress  ? 
There  may  be  two  sides  to  this  question,  judging  by  Greece  in 
her  elder  glory,  and  Spain  under  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II. 
Besides,  the  United  States  are  becoming  somewhat  familiar  with 
earthquakes.  After  many  shocks,  the  fear  which  they  engender 
departs.  I  have  heard  our  late  Consul-General  (Mr.  Heap)  say 
that  when,  in,  his  early  youth,  he  was  with  Commodore  Porter 
at  San  Stefano,  the  earthquake  was  regarded  with  great  sang 
froid  by  the  inhabitants  of  that  neighborhood.  A  gentleman  men- 
tioned to  me,  upon  one  occasion,  that  he  was  in  a  house  which  was 
violently  shaken,  with  much  creaking  and  cracking.  When 
he  asked,  with  great  consternation,  the  cause,  "  Oh,"  said  his 
host,  lighting  his  cigarette  coolly,  "  it  is  only  an  earthquake  !"  In 
fact,  the  Bosporus  itself,  with  all  its  rare  beauty  and  advantages, 
is  fhe  result  of  the  earthquake.  There  is  nothing  like  an  earth- 
quake— unless  it  be  war — to  stir  some  populations  into  energy  ; 
and  even  earthquakes  are  insufficient  to  arouse  them  irto  dis- 
content and  advancement.  Whether  earthquakes  aid  or  retard 
civilization,  I  leave  Buckle  to  determine.  In  his  volume  on 
Civilization,  he  makes  the  comparison  between  Scotland  and 
Spain,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter.  I  am  not  prepared  to 
accept  all  of  his  conclusions. 

In  representing  these  contrary  winds,  how  can  we  cast  the 
horoscope  of  Turkey?     How  reconcile  these  contrarieties  ? 

Shall  we  do  it  by  flippantly  repeating  the  common  phrase 
applied  to  the  Turk,  as  "  unspeakable  "?  It  was  applied  by  Car- 
lyle.  If  he  meant  by  it,  as  I  suppose  he  did,  an  incomprehensible 
person,  hard  to  be  understood — he  had  better  have  cared  for  his 


6o6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

Own  glass  house,  before  stoning  that  of  the  Turk;  for  of  all  the 
incomprehensibilities  incarnate,  Thomas  Carlyle  was,  and  is,  the 
most  unspeakable. 

The  Ottoman  power  ascended  to  its  zenith  with  as  much 
rapidity  as  it  has  declined  to  the  nadir.  This  fact  makes  its  rise 
and  progress  an  interesting  subject  of  philosophy.  Under  Sulei- 
man the  Magnificent — the  most  cultivated  of  all  the  Ottoman 
rulers— -the  empire  achieved  its  greatest  glory.  It  was — if  not 
the  very  first — among  the  first  nations  of  the  earth  in  power  and 
prestige.  A  few  years  later,  it  began  to  wane.  In  spite  of  all 
attempts  to  stay  its  eclipse,  it  is  declining  yet.  It  did  not  decline 
because  it  lacked  skill  in  governing,  so  much  as  the  ability  to 
keep  step  with  the  advancing  progress  of  the  world  in  physical 
and  other  sciences. 

Much  has  been  said,  and  will  continue  to  be  said,  about  the 
contentment  which  the  peculiar  religion  of  the  Turk  inspires; 
as  if  that  contentment  were  the  foil  to  enterprise.  It  is  thought 
that  the  black  coffee  and  solacing  chibouque,  the  cross-legged  posi- 
tion, and  the  seeming  leisure,  laziness  and  obesity  of  the  Turk, 
are  signs  of  that  contentment  which  can  only  be  found  in  the 
fatalistic  East.  I  do  not  doubt  this,  as  a  rule  ;  but  there  are  so 
many  exceptions  that  the  rule  is  almost  made  contrariwise  by  the 
exceptions.  There  is  an  easy  quietude,  gentlemanly  polish,  and 
a  spoken  smoothness  in  the  manners  of  the  Osmanli,  which  seem 
to  have  no  anxieties  for  the  future  and  an  abundant  serenity  in 
the  present.  Under  the  Turkish  dominion  there  is  no  hereditary 
influence  except  that  of  the  Sultan's  family.  "  Wealth  is  a  hignly 
volatile  blessing,  and  not  always  transmissible."  The  officers  for 
the  time  being  are  the  aristocracy.  These  may  or  may  not  be 
humbly  born  and  bred  ;  for  any  one  may  rise  in  the  state. 

Many  years  ago  I  laughed  over  the  account  which  Eothen 
gave  of  his  first  meeting  with  a  Turkish  Pasha,  in  the  province  of 
Servia.  He  had  crossed  the  border  of  the  new  into  the  elder 
world,  and  through  the  aid  of  a  dragoman  he  held  a  most  comi- 
cal and  complimentary  colloquy.  The  Pasha  was  led  to  regard 
the  Englishman  as  a  grandiose  personage — Lord  of  London, 
scorner  of  Ireland  and  suppressor  of  France — who  had  quitted  his 
government  and  left  his  enemies  to  breathe  for  a  moment.  He 
had  crossed  the  broad  waters  in  strict  disguise,  with  a  small 
but  eternally  faithful  retinue,  in  order  that  he  might  look  upon 


PHYSICAL  PROGRESS  A  T  THE  EAST.  6oj 

the  bright  countenance  of  the  Pasha  of  Pashas  of  the  everlasting 
Pashalic  of  Karagholookoldour! 

This  wonderful  introduction  led  to  much  conversation,  in  which 
the  traveler  pledged  England  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the 
Sultan's  dominions. 

To  the  remarks  upon  physical  progress  and  steam  enginery 
the  Pasha  responded  : 

"Wonderful  magic!  Whirr!  All  by  wheels  ;  whiz,  whiz  !  all 
by  steam  !  Wonderful  people!  Whirr,  whirr  !  all  by  steam  ;  whiz, 
whiz!  all  by  steam!" 

The  Pasha  seemed  to  have  found  out  that  the  English  talk 
more  through  their  machinery  than  with  their  lips.  It  was  only 
yesterday  that  I  picked  up  a  Persian  paper,  in  which  the  editor 
strongly  urges  upon  that  ancient  realm  that  it  is  not  by  force  and 
arms  that  its  people  are  to  be  cultivated  and  elevated,  but  by 
adopting  the  arts,  the  mechanism,  the  sciences,  the  education, 
and  the  civilization  of  the  West. 

Eothen  was  proud  to  know  that  the  Pasha  similarly,  fifty  years 
ago,  regarded  the  manufacturing  energy  and  commerce  of  Eng- 
land. In  order  to  aggrandize  the  English,  the  Pasha  gently  and 
diplomatically  suggested  that  the  Russians  are  only  drilled  swine; 
the  Germans,  sleeping  babes  ;  the  Italians,  the  servants  of  song; 
the  French,  the  sons  of  newspapers;  and  the  Greeks,  the  weavers 
of  lies  ;  but  that  England  and  the  Osmanli  are  one,  and  always 
together  in  righteousness.  The  Pasha  wound  up  his  interesting 
colloquy  by  exclaiming  : 

"  Proud  are  the  sires,  blessed  are  the  dams  of  the  horses  which 
shall  carry  Your  Excellency  to  the  end  of  a  prosperous  journey  ! 
May  the  saddle  beneath  you  glide  down  to  the  gates  of  the  happy 
city,  like  a  boat  swinging  on  the  third  river  of  Paradise!  May 
your  eyes  flame  red  through  the  darkness — more  red  than  the 
eyes  of  ten  tigers!     Farewell!  " 

Less  of  this  high-flown  persiflage,  and  more  heed  of  markets, 
machinery  and  transportation,  and  Turkey  would  realize  some  of 
her  dreams  of  avarice  and  visions  of  magnificence. 

The  Turks  are  the  ruling  class;  but  other  races  assist  in  the 
functions  of  the  State.  In  Constantinople  the  masses  are 
Greeks,  Armenians,  Italians,  French  and  Levantine.  The 
cultivated  Turk,  when  discovered,  becomes  a  Cadi,  Ulema 
or  Pasha.     In  fact,  it  is  held  generally  that  the   Turks  them- 


6o8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

selves  are  decreasing,  and  that  their  race  and  religion  are  dying 
out  For  one,  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it.  The  families 
of  children  seen  in  public  do  not  look  that  way.  New  and 
more  elegant  mosques  are  being  built  on  the  European  side  of 
the  Bosporus.  The  most  superb  of  mosques  is  now  being  erect- 
ed almost  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  Sultan's  palace  at  Yildiz. 
In  fact,  within  the  last  few  years,  since  the  Seraglio  was  burned 
down,  the  Sultan  has  preferred  to  live  in  Europe.  It  is  not  true 
that  Europe  keeps  the  Turk  in  his  place  by  preventing  the  exist- 
ing arrangements  from  being  disturbed.  It  is  the  Turk,  rather, 
which  keeps  Europe  in  its  place.  The  armies  of  the  Sultan  are 
said  to  be  composed  of  others  than  Turks.  But  what  does  it 
matter  ?  The  Albanians,  Circassians  and  Kurds,  and  even  the 
blacks  from  the  Soudan,  which  make  up  the  majority  of  the 
Army,  are  Mahometans.  Many  of  the  sailors  are  Greeks,  though 
very  good  care  is  taken,  since  the  Greek  revolt,  that  the  officers 
shall  be  Turks. 

The  religions  of  the  world,  which  determine  the  conduct  of 
human  society,  are  not  so  unlike  one  another  as  the  world  is  apt 
to  suppose.  The  Koran  is  not  so  unlike  the  New  Testament  as 
people  think.  There  is  taught  in  its  pages  sobriety  and  con- 
tentment. There  is,  as  a  result  of  its  lessons,  an  absence  of 
crime  among  the  masses,  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  Turk.  A 
graphic  writer.  Major  Johnson,  in  his  volume,  "  On  the  track  of 
the  Crescent,"  just  published  m  London,  has  had  the  courage  to 
do  justice  to  this  race,  and  to  encounter  prejudice  by  his  sincere 
tribute.  He  says  that  "those  who  have  lived  among  the  Turks 
say  that  they  are  very  conscientious  and  honorable,  far  more 
pleasant  to  do  business  with  than  a  good  many  so-called  Chris- 
tians in  the  East.  They  are  very  kind  to  dumb  animals,  and  are 
hospitable  to  the  friendless  and  outcast.  As  Turkey  received  the 
Armenians  in  the  fourteenth  century,  so  in  1849  she  received 
the  Hungarian  and  Polish  refugees  ;  and  in  1869,  the  Circassians. 
These  latter  have,  however,but  scantily  rewarded  their  benefactor, 
for  they  have  been  as  a  thorn  in  her  side  ever  since." 

Such  hospitalities  are  not  the  sign  of  an  ungenerous  people. 
In  comparison  with  other  nations,  and  as  a  sign  of  good-will  and 
permanence,  they  are  significant. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

RESOURCES   OF   TURKEY — TAXATION,    BRIGANDAGE    AND  FINANCES. 

The  empire  of  Turkey  is  rich  in  many  resources.  Its  nat- 
ural advantages,  especially  in  producing  the  great  staples  of 
food  and  manufacture,  have  no  parallel.  Its  cotton  exports 
were  once  more  important  than  they  are  to-day,  but  still  the 
cotton  lands  are  exceptionally  fine.  Turkey  has  always  beert 
celebrated  for  her  fleeces  of  wool.  Her  best  sheep  come  frona 
the  ancient  stock,  avis  aries.  Their  relatives  may  still  be  found 
in  a  wild  state  in  the  mountains  of  Asia  Minor.  Mohair,  the 
fleece  of  the  Angora  goat,  with  its  staple  of  five  inches  in  length, 
its  silky  texture,  and  its  white  color  has  no  superior  of  its  kind.  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  the  Turkish  government,  while  allowing  the 
hair  to  be  exported,  forbids  the  exportation  of  the  goat  itself.  Its 
hair  enters  largely  into  the  material  for  ladies'  dresses  and  tailors* 
trimmings,  and  for  gentlemen's  summer  clothing.  It  has  its 
place  in  the  more  elegant  shawls,  velvets  and  a  great  variety 
of  articles  of  utility.  The  silk-worm  is  extensively  reared  in 
Syria.  Broussa  is  the  great  emporium  of  silk.  The  finer  fab- 
rics, if  not  woven  in  the  loom,  are  made  by  the  hand-shuttles  of 
the  skillful  Turk  and  Armenian.  The  Turkish  tobacco  is  plenti- 
ful. It  flourishes  in  both  European  and  Asiatic  Turkey.  Its 
aroma  is  delicate  and  peculiar.  The  finest  is  perhaps  that  of 
Latakia.  It  is  called  the  "  Father  of  Perfume."  Madder  is  also 
raised.  It  is  easily  propagated,  and  is  exported  in  the  root.  It  is 
quite  prolific  and  profitable.  The  acorn-cups  of  the  oak  furnish 
another  article  for  dyeing.  Opium  is  raised,  but  is  used  less  than 
formerly  in  Asia  Minor  and  Turkey  in  Europe.  The  soil  within 
the  domain  of  Turkey  produces  from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred 
fold.  Thus  in  some  respects  Nature  tries  to  compensate  for  the 
taxes  imposed  by  the  government  and  the  discouragement  of  every 
industry. 

As  for  the  agriculture  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  it  is  not  what  might 

609 


6 1 0  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

be  called  scientific.  The  plains  are  unfenced  and  level,  and 
attempts  made  to  introduce  agricultural  implements  have  failed. 
Some  winnowing  machines  were  bought  by  the  best  farmers,  but 
they  were  destroyed.  The  farms  occupied  by  the  Bulgarian  and 
Turkish  farmers  are  too  large — more  than  can  be  profitably  man- 
aged. The  farmers  use  no  manures.  The  old  wooden  plow, 
with  oxen,  and  sometimes  with  camels,  is  very  superficial  in  its 
work,  as  no  harrows  are  used. 

The  mode  of  threshing  by  the  Turks  is  upon  the  old  threshing 
floor:  sometimes  by  horses,  who  tread  out  the  grain;  sometimes 
with  a  flail;  sometimes  with  cattle  drawing  a  hurdle  on  which  a 
man  is  standing.  There  is  a  difference  between  the  humors  of 
the  Greek  and  Turk  while  threshing.  It  is  said  that  the  Turk 
performs  the  threshing  with  dignified  solemnity,  while  the  Greek, 
like  the  Celt,  is  always  jocular  and  enjoys  the  business. 

Wax,  raisins,  olive  oil,  morocco,  saddlery,  swords  of  rare 
quality,  shawls,  carpets,  dye-stuffs,  embroidery,  essential  oils, 
attar  of  roses,  meerchaum-clay,  honey,  sponges,  drugs,  gall-nuts, 
resin  and  wine,  are  to  be  added  to  the  catalogue  of  products  and 
exports  in  which  Turkey  ought  to  rejoice.  These  show  the  great 
fertility  of  her  soil  and  the  variety  of  her  climate.  But  how 
feebly  this  catalogue  represents  the  elegance  and  comforts  enjoyed 
two  thousand  years  ago  in  Thrace  and  Macedonia,  Elyricum, 
Moesia,  Thessaly  and  Epirus,  with  their  many  villages  and  teem- 
ing people. 

As  in  Judea,  so  in  Asia  Minor,  the  very  terraces  of  the  mount- 
ain-sides are  evidence  that  they  once  rivaled  the  fertile  valleys 
at  the  foot  of  the  mountains.  These  terraces  are  a  protest  in 
favor  of  a  just  Providence  against  the  improvidence  of  man. 

Among  the  other  changes  which  are  noticeable,  in  this  "  Land  of 
the  Sun  and  of  the  Orient,"  is  the  failure  of  that  artistic  work 
in  sculpture,  painting,  in  the  metals,  in  precious  stones,  in  rich  fab- 
rics, which  once  found  their  highest  refinement  around  Byzantium. 

What  room  there  is  for  improvement  in  Asia  Miner  alone  ! 
How  many  millions  of  acres  of  arable  land  are  running  to  waste  ! 
How  could  it  be  otherwise  in  a  country  where  every  donkey  and 
tree,  every  bushel  of  grain  and  crop  of  figs,  every  olive  grove  and 
vineyard  have  been  taxed  almost  out  of  existence,  and  the  very 
animals  massacred  to  avoid  the  oppressive  taxation. 

Not  to  speak  of  wheat,  barley,  maize  and  dried  fruits  in  abun- 


MINERAL  RICHES  OF  ASIA  MINOR.  6 1  I 

dance,  and  especially  the  fig  from  Smyrna,  there  is  one  resource 
of  Turkey  outside  of  the  agricultural  product  which  would 
furnish  a  sure  presage  of  a  splendid  and  prosperous  future 
for  this  country,  but  for  the  neglect,  abandonment  and  miser- 
able codes  by  which  the  production  of  her  minerals  is  im- 
peded. The  coal-mines  in  the  ranges  of  Asia  Minor  forming 
the  southern  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  copper  of  the 
Taurus  range,  only  lack  steam,  skill,  enterprise  and  capital  to 
bring  their  hidden  wealth  to  the  surface.  When  Turkey  shall  have 
worked  her  unworked  mines  and  untilled  plains;  when  her  mag- 
nificent mountain  slopes,  her  rivers  flowing  to  the  sea  through 
beautiful  valleys,  her  forests  of  oaks  spreading  boll  upon  boll,  in 
infinite  richness — shall  have  been  thoroughly  developed  by  engin- 
ery and  energy,  Turkey  may  take  a  new  position  in  the  world  of 
commerce. 

There  is  a  demonstrative  centralization  in  the  Turkish  econo- 
mies, which  is  not  apparent  in  the  governments  and  their  admin- 
istration. This  is  a  bane,  and  not  a  blessing.  When  that  is 
liberalized,  as  it  is  being  liberalized  by  a  liberal  Sultan;  when 
taxes  are  levied  upon  an  intelligent  and  rational  plan;  when  the  old 
modes  of  working  by  hand  shall  have  ceased  to  exist,  and  the 
spinning-jenny,  the  power-loom  and  the  blast-furnace  appear  upon 
ever}' eligible  spot;  and  when  by  the  vigilant  care  of  advanced 
statesmen,  these  elements  are  developed  and  their  product  sent 
into  the  markets  of  the  world — this  marvelous  country  will  have 
a  fresh  impulse  to  greatness,  and  resume  among  the  Powers  of  the 
earth  its  ancient  prosperity. 

The  mineral  resources  of  Turkey  must  some  time  come  to  a 
rich  result.  There  seems  to  be  an  impression  that  mineral  wealth, 
undeveloped,  is  like  a  hoarded  treasure,  already  minted  and 
ready  for  use.  This  was  the  Chinese  idea,  but  even  China  is 
burrowing  beneath  the  surface,  and  is  doing  its  best  to  realize 
this  hidden  wealth.  Some  one  will  penetrate  the  sunless  caves  of 
Turkey,  and  bring  these  natural  values  to  the  light  and  the 
market.  A  new  system,  as  to  mines,  is  being  inaugurated  in 
Turkey.  It  may  interfere  with  many  existing  contracts.  The  few 
mines  which  are  in  working  order  are  leased  by  the  government 
to  the  Greeks.  These  mines  are  in  Asia  Minor.  They  are  of 
copper,  argentiferous  lead,  silver  ore  and  pure  silver,  not  to  speak 
of  iron  ore  and  coal  in  abundance  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea. 


6  I  2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  V. 

These  call  for  much  capital  and  enterprise  on  the  part  of  the 
Western  nations,  but  produce  little  result  as  yet,  owing  to  the 
jealousy  of  the  Turk,  who  regards  treasure-delving  as  a  species  of 
lottery,  in  which  he  reserves  for  the  state  all  the  prizes,  and  allows 
all  the  blanks  to  the  contractor. 

The  student  will  remember  that  in  the  early  era,  in  the  sands 
of  many  of  the  rivers  of  Asia  Minor,  and  in  Macedonia  and 
elsewhere,  there  was  gold  dust,  but  these  surface  diggings  have 
long  since  been  exhausted. 

The  mineral  resources  of  this  country  have  never  been  thor- 
oughly understood.  The  Sultan  has  studied,  as  I  have  inti- 
mated, the  American  mode  of  mining.  He  will  probably  derive 
all  the  advantages  from  the  latest  scientific  skill  on  this  subject. 
Extended  intercourse  and  mechanical  skill  will  bring  forth  these 
resources  of  the  East.  » 

There  is  a  Department  of  Mines  in  Turkey.  It  has  much  to 
do  with  concessions  to  those  who  would  work  them.  Sometimes, 
in  these  concessions  there  was  allowed  the  right  of  exportation 
abroad,  paying  the  customary  six  per  cent.,  according  to  the 
quality  of  the  mineral.  That  used  to  be  the  rule.  Now,  the  dis- 
coverer of  a  mine  is  obliged  to.  lose  five,  eight  or  ten  years  in 
waiting,  after  the  acceptance  of  the  first  sample.  These  delays 
ruin  the  mining  business  of  Turkey.  It  is  a  loss  to  those  who 
seek  concessions,  and  a  loss  to  the  Treasury.  Besides,  so  much 
red  tape  is  required,  that  to  pay  for  the  tape  alone,  not  to  speak 
of  its  incidents,  requires  the  time  of  a  generation  in  order  to  have 
a  benefaction.     But  this  system  is  about  to  be  improved. 

Like  the  Russian  peasant,  the  farmers  generally  live  in  vil- 
lages, and  not  upon  their  farms.  This  is  a  matter  of  safety. 
They  have  to  pay  a  tithe  to  the  tax-gatherer.  The  government 
police  is  on  hand  to  make  the  farmer  pay,  if  he  be  derelict.  The 
zaptieh,  or  policeman,  has  been  the  greatest  annoyance  and 
burden  to  the  farming  population.  How  the  tithe  is  estimated, 
sometimes  on  the  crops  in  advance,  without  any  allowance  for  a 
bad  season  ;  how  the  levy  of  tax  is  made  without  appeal  to  any 
authority  above  the  policeman;  how  a  good  deal  more  is  levied 
than  goes  to  the  government  exchequer — all  this  has  been  written 
about.  Many  remedies  have  been  proposed.  When  to  taxation 
is  added  the  destruction  of  barns  and  houses,  by  a  war  of  races 
and  of  religion,  as  in  a.  d.  1877-78,  it  may  well  be  inferred  that 


PROTESTS  AGAINST  SPOLIATION. 


013 


European  Turkey  is  fenceless,  treeless,  and  almost  cropless.  The 
Bulgarian  or  Turkish  farmer  exclaims,  "  It  could  not  be  worse 
under  any  other  rule."  But  very  likely  it  might  be  worse,  for  the 
rule  in  Greece  is  not  better,  and  somewhat  worse;  and  the  rule 
under  Russia  would  be  incomparably  bad.  Certainly,  if  there  be 
a  scintilla  of  truth  in  the  account  of  this  Thracian  land — such  as 
Dr.  Bird  recounts  in  his  drama  of  the  gladiator  Spartacus — the 
Roman  legions  and  mercenaries  were  even  worse  still;  and  com- 
pared to  their  ravage,  the  rule  of  the  Greek  or  Turk  is  modera- 
tion itself. 

It  is  a  curious  commentary  on  the  mode  of  levying  taxes  in 
Turkey,  that  when  a  petition  for  relief  is  sent  in  from  some  quar- 
ters, it  has  to  be  inscribed  in  the  shape  of  a  "round-robin,"  so 
that  no  special  person  shall  be  held  responsible  for  the  memorial. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  there  is  any  element  of  per- 
sonal permanency  in  the  Turkish  administration.  The  Sultan 
changes  his  Ministers  as  frequently  as  he  changes  his  Governors. 
This  is  done  for  a  purpose;  for  he  is  determined  that  no  oppor- 
tunity shall  occur  to  his  officials,  by  a  long  stay  in  one  position, 
to  absorb  and  detract  from  its  resources. 

As  an  illustration  of  this  "home rule,"  or  economy,  which 
obtains  even  in  distant  provinces,  and  which  still  renders  its  proper 
accountability  to  the  capital,  it  is  a  fact  that  the  oppressed  people 
of  the  Vilayet  of  Mecca,  where  the  religious  and  loyal  enthusiasm 
is  the  most  pronounced,  used  that  element  of  progressive  physics 
— the  telegraph — to  present  charges  against  the  Governor,  Osman 
Pasha,  for  his  spoliation  of  the  province.  These  despatches  bore 
the  signatures  of  the  first  men  connected  with  the  Mahometan 
church  and  state.  They  charged  upon  the  Governor  the  wrong- 
ful taking  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  the  property  of  the 
public,  to  swell  his  purse  and  that  of  his  friends.  These  charges 
were  not  made  in  vain.  As  did  the  officials  of  the  Greek  empire, 
so  do  the  Turkish  officials.  By  their  autocratic  control  they 
create  a  rule  for  the  special  circumstances  of  each  case,  thus  dis- 
playing in  every  corner  of  their  realm  a  subtle,  practical  common 
sense. 

The  best  illustration  of  the  tax  upon  the  peasants  of  the  Orient, 
and  which  is  as  old  as  the  earliest  Assyrian  dynasties,  is  the 
mode  by  which  certain  articles  on  which  taxes  are  levied  is  farmed 
out.     There  is  in  Turkey  a  tobacco  Regie.    Its  officers  are  called 


6 1 4  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

coldjis.  They  are  the  servitors  of  an  Austrian  company,  which 
undertakes  to  collect  this  tax.  As  everybody  of  both  sexes 
smokes  in  Turkey,  the  tax  is  a  matter  of  great  importance. 
Smuggling  is  as  common  here  as  upon  our  Canadian  border. 
There  are  as  many  romantic  stories  told  about  tobacco  smug- 
gling, as  there  was  about  smuggling  on  the  coast  of  Ireland 
in  earlier  times.  A  convoy  of  contrabandists — in  Asia  Minor 
— fifteen  in  number,  meet  the  coldjis.  A  fight  ensues.  Fire- 
arms on  such  occasions  are  lively.  The  smuggler  generally 
gets  the  worst  of  it.  He  flies,  and  the  Regie  goes  on  with  its 
inquisitorial  arrangements.  The  company  which  farms  this  busi- 
ness have  made  many  demands  to  stimulate  the  authorities  to 
assist  in  the  collection  of  this  revenue,  but  as  it  is  a  foreign  mon- 
opoly, it  would  be  better  to  do  with  the  tax  as  they  do  in  Austria, 
Italy,  France  and  America — collect  it  directly  by  the  state.  The 
Turkish  government  may  not  want  to  offend  the  bulk  of  its 
people,  who  are  consumers;  the  Regie,  controlled  by  foreign 
capitalists,  is  unpopular;  the  three  millions  and  a  half  collected 
by  the  company  may  represent  a  very  imperfect  system  of 
taxation;  but,  after  all,  the  government  cannot  well  protect  the 
company  where  additional  fragrance  is  given  to  the  "  virtuous 
weed  "  by  the  fact  of  its  being  contraband.  One  of  the  difficul- 
ties connected  with  its  collection,  is  that  advances  are  made  to 
growers,  and  this  does  not  lead  to  a  perfect  product.  Much 
improvement  was  instituted  of  late  in  its  collection,  and  I  began 
to  think  that  this  farming  out  of  the  revenue  was  the  best  mode; 
but  when  I  read  about  the  attack  upon  a  man  near  Broussa,  who 
had  in  his  sash  an  empty  tobacco  box,  and  when  the  coldjis,  by 
the  aid  of  their  noses,  determined  that  the  very  smell  of  the  tobac- 
co in  the  box  was  contraband,  and  that  a  grand  fight  was  a  con- 
sequence of  these  discoveries — I  reconsidered;  and  concluded 
that  the  best  way,  after  all,  was  for  the  government  to  do  its  own 
business  and  not  contract  it  out  to  others,  especially  to  aliens. 
Moreover,  it  is  by  no  means  an  easy  matter  to  collect  taxes  from 
a  population  which  has  within  its  bosom  the  nomadic  instinct. 
Their  sense  of  freedom  rebels  against  such  exactions;  and  if  they 
cannot  pay — they  resort  to  rebellion  or  brigandage. 

The  word  "Tartar"  is  simply  the  duplication  of  a  word 
signifying  "to  move."  Tar  means  *'  to  move,"  and  Tar-tar  means 
"to  move — move  ;"  and  as  the  nomadic  Tartars  were  always  on 


NOMADIC  TENDENCIES. 


615 


the  move,  their  name  fixes  their  distinguishing  peculiarity.  Do 
not  let  this  derivation  be  confounded  with  the  word  Tartarus  ;  for 
that,  if  a  good  old  pun,  is  philological ly  erroneous.  It,  however, 
came  from  a  king  and  a  saint.  Saint  I^uis,  of  France,  in  speak- 
mg  of  the  Mongols  of  a.  d.  1241,  remarked  that  "  either  we  must 
thrust  back  those  whom  we  call  Tartars  into  their  own  place  in 
Tartarus,  whence  they  come,  or  they  will  send  us  all  to  heaven." 

The  word  "Tur  "  is  supposed  to  mean  the  same  thing,  and  in 
connection  with  the  word  Koman,  which  means  an  arrow,  it  signi- 
fies that  the  original  Turks,  or  Tur-comans,  were  bowmen.  That 
this  is  an  established  fact,  maybe  seen  from  the  weapons  of  Turk- 
ish warfare  on  exhibition  in  the  Treasury  at  the  Porte. 

Is  It  this  nomadic  quality  which  tends  to  prevent  tax-gathering 
and  to  encourage  brigandage  ?  If  the  brigand  were  confined  to 
the  Turk,  this  might  be  accepted.  The  worst  of  the  brigands  are 
Circassian,  and  next  to  them  are  the  Greeks.  Accounts  of  their 
outrages,  and  the  consequent  death  or  ransom  of  their  captives, 
are  not  common  only  because  publicity  is  not  allowed.  How- 
ever, many  stories  slip  through  the  censor's  fingers. 

About  the  time  I  left  Constantinople,  at  the  town  of  Zile,  on 
the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  there  was  a  Circassian  brigand  named 
Lofitcha.  He  was  a  terror ;  but  he  was  promptly  retired  from 
public  life.  I  do  not  know  what  has  become  of  any  portion  of 
his  human  body,  but  I  trust  that  the  many  gentlemen  of  his 
suite  have  found  that,  when  his  head  was  off  and  the  brains 
were  out,  the  man,  if  not  his  tribe,  would  cease.  The  Turk- 
ish brigand  has  not  much  to  brag  of.  Give  me  some  redoubtable 
Greek  captain  who  demands  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  per 
capita,  and  who  can  be  right  in  the. midst  of  a  town  to  receive  the 
ransom — from  the  authorities  !  On  my  trip  to  Egypt,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  having  the  company  of  Mr.  Whithall.  He  is  an 
Eastern  merchant  well  known  in  New  York.  He  has  a  house  not 
far  from  Smyrna,  behind  which  the  brigands  had  a  rendezvous. 
This  was  within  a  few  minutes'  walk  of  the  police-house  in  the  vil- 
lage. These  brigands  were  hunted  over  the  mountains,  when 
they  were  in  the  town.  There  is  nothing  very  humorous  about 
this  business,  but  if  you  happen  to  be  a  merchant  traveling 
through  Macedonia,  trying  to  sell  your  goods  at  one  of  the  fairs, 
and  on  your  return  meet  several  highwaymen,  who  relieve  you  of 
your  profits,  and  you  happen  to  be  no  Imguist,  would  you  not 


6l6  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

consider  the  deafness  and  dumbness  of  your  situation  to  be 
almost  as  great  a  misfortune  as  the  brigands  ?  They  care  little 
for  your  infirmity,  when  you  do  not  give  the  indemnity. 

It  has  been  to  me  amazing,  ever  since  I  landed  in  Smyrna  in 
A.  D.  1 85 1,  and  was  warned  against  going  to  the  castle  on  the 
top  of  the  mountain — that  Smyrna,  of  all  places,  should  be  the 
spot  where  the  brigands  are  most  prosperous.  They  take  the  dis- 
guise of  police  ;  they  play  the  part  of  Fra  Diavolo,  except  that 
they  lack  his  politeness.  Their  cruelty  toward  their  captives  is 
horrible.  Still,  they  survive  all  the  attempts  of  the  authorities  to 
obliterate  them. 

It  is  no  new  literature  to  write  the  facts  connected  with  the  high- 
waymen of  Albania,  or  the  connection  between  such  brigands  of 
the  Kanniots  and  the  powerful  Turkish  rulers  of  the  neighborhood. 
Fine  looking  mountaineers  are  these  Kanniots.  They  have  a 
touch  of  Gypsy  blood  in  them.  They  are  romantic  enough  for  a 
drama.  They  are  fiery,  revengeful  and  reckless.  In  vain  the 
Turkish  government  has  endeavored  to  suppress  them.  This  it 
is  that  makes  the  life  of  the  tourist  a  doubtful  one  at  best  in  these 
countries  of  the  Orient. 

There  is  only  one  advantage  in  taking  a  company  of  Turkish 
soldiers  or  policemen  along  with  you  in  traveling  through  the 
country;  and  that  is,  though  the  guard  may  run  away  at  the  first 
appearance  of  a  brigand,  and  fail  to  give  you  protection,  yet  if  you 
fail  to  demand  or  have  an  escort,  you  have  no  claim  for  compen- 
sation upon  the  authorities;  and,  to  a  Minister  who  has  been  pros- 
ecuting such  claims,  this  indeed  seems  a  most  comical  condition. 

I  do  not  know  that  it  belongs  to  America,  with  its  train- 
robbers  and  Chinese-raids,  to  criticise  very  closely  the  police  or 
conduct  of  this  city  and  country.  In  cities  which  are  poorly  lighted, 
there  must  be  many  lamentable  cases  of  the  municipal  foot-pad 
and  of  the  military  rascal.  The  worst  cases  are  those  given  in 
the  reports  of  the  out-lying  provinces.  According  to  one  of  these 
reports,  from  October,  1885,  to  December,  1886,  in  the  Smyrna 
district,  no  fewer  than  three  hundred  and  four  brigands  have  been 
taken  alive,  twenty-nine  more  were  killed,  and  eight  others 
wounded.  The  Smyrniotes  were  disappointed  at  these  meagre 
returns,  and  they  have  some  right  to  complain. 

Six  policemen,  or  zaptiehs,  are  escorting  some  money  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  empire.    A  band  of  Albanian  brigands  kill  the 


BASHI-BAZOUKS. 
6,7 


6 1 8  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

sergeant,  the  zaptiehs  receive  wounds,  the  ruffians  get  the  money 
and  escape.  In  Macedonia  the  same  thing  happens,  except 
this  :  that  a  Monseigneur  of  the  Greek  Church  is  captured,  and 
refusing  to  pay  any  ransom,  his  corpse  is  found.  In  vain  the 
Ottoman  troops  pursue  the  brigands.  In  the  district  around 
Trebizond  such  outrages  are  common.  The  soldiers  and  police 
often  fail  to  capture  the  bandits.  Around  the  Trebizond  neigh- 
borhood, no  fewer  than  fifty-three  persons  were  killed  by  bandits 
recently.  Rich  traders  are  preferred  by  them — for  capture.  They 
pay  dearly  for  their  release.  Villages  are  pillaged  and  women 
dishonored.  No  bayonets  appear  to  stop  these  extraordinary  per- 
formances. 

During  the  Crimean  War,  and  at  its  end,  there  was  great  com- 
plaint about  the  ruthless  bands  of  roystering,  devil-may-care  land 
pirates  and  quasi  soldiers,  known  as  the  Bashi-Bazouks.  They 
were  a  "rakehelly  rout  of  ragged  rascals  " — both  a  terror  and  a 
scourge.  They  still  exist  in  certain  parts  of  the  empire,  and 
occasionally  they  are  to  be  seen  upon  the  Bridge  of  the  Golden 
Horn,  arrayed  in  all  the  hideousness  of  their  attire.  My  readers 
doubtless  prefer  to  see  their  counterfeit  presentment  in  the  pict- 
ured page  to  meeting  them  on  a  lonely  plain  or  "in  a  mountain 
fastness. 

I  have  not  heard  that  any  such  plagues  followed  the  recent 
recruits  on  their  disbanding. 

To  those  who  speak  lugubriously  about  the  condition  and  des- 
tiny of  the  Turks,  a  few  facts  may  disturb  their  pessimistic  view. 
These  are  facts  that  come  red-hot  out  of  the  caldron  which  was 
simmering  during  the  fall  of  1885,  and  the  years  1886-87.  It  was 
during  the  last  days  of  September,  1885,  that  the  insurrection  of 
Prince  Alexander  took  place.  It  looked  to  the  overthrow,  really,, 
of  the  Sultan's  Suzerainty  and  power  in  East  Roumelia  and  Bul- 
garia. It  was  accomplished  in  a  night.  It  had  been  the  general 
opinion  that,  some  ten  years  before,  Turkey  was  utterly  crushed 
by  the  Northern  Bear.  Russia  dictated  peace  within  a  few  miles 
of  the  Golden  Gate  of  Constantinople.  Turkey  was  deprived  of 
rich  and  populous  provinces.  She  was  adjudged  to  pay  an. 
indemnity,  which  she  was  utterly  powerless  to  discharge.  The 
treaty  of  Berlin,  which  had  the  good  effect  of  modifying  the 
treaty  of  San  Stefano,  nevertheless  was  more  rigorously  carried 
out  against  Turkey  than  in  her  favor.     Indeed,  it  was  said  that 


RESER  VED  STRENG  TH  OF  TURKE  Y.  6 1 0 

Turkey  simply  lived,  as  it  were,  from  hand  to  mouth  on  the  suf- 
ferance of  other  Powers,  and  that  the  first  popular  movement  in 
the  Bulgarian  provinces  would  demonstrate  her  weakness,  bank- 
ruptcy and  disorganization. 

When,  therefore,  the  revolution  occurred  in  East  Rouraelia, 
although  Turkey  had  some  six  to  seven  thousand  troops  on  the 
border,  near  Phillipopolis,  she  seemed  to  the  outside  world  utterly 
helpless  ;  but  to  those  of  us  who  were  looking  from  the  inside,  it 
was  not  so.  It  was  not  much  concern  to  her  that  her  Governor- 
General  had  been  expelled  from  East  Roumelia,  and  that  Prince 
Alexander  had  been  placed  over  the  united  provinces.  There 
seemed  to  be  little  or  no  military  force  to  protect  the  border, 
either  on  the  Grecian  boundary  or  in  the  Roumelian  country. 
Then  began  a  series  of  orders  which  energized  the  Turkish 
empire.  The  reserves,  or  redifs,  were  called  out.  They  came 
with  loyal  huzzas  and  promptitude.  The  equipments  were  ready. 
The  ships  which  were  chartered  to  convey  them  from  the  Asiatic 
to  the  European  provinces  were  also  ready,  though  it  required 
much  push,  skill  and  diplomacy  to  accomplish  these  results. 

At  Salonica  alone,  before  the  end  of  the  year  1885,  seventy 
thousand  troops  were  landed.  Right  under  my  eye,  at  Therapia, 
the  garrisons  of  the  Bosporus  were  reinforced.  The  wild  tribes  of 
Albania,  where  rebellious  fighting  had  been  going  on  for  centuries, 
were  held  in  check.  The  army  on  the  Greek  frontier  could  have 
crushed  any  movement  of  the  Greeks  against  Turkey.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  say  that  the  Turk  did  not  want  to  fight,  for  it 
might  have  involved  consequences  that  were  as  unforeseen  as 
they  were  perilous.  It  is  also  due  to  truth  to  say  that  he  was 
ready  upon  the  frontier  of  Eastern  Roumelia  with  a  sufticient 
force.  Two  hundred  thousand  soldiers  is  not  too  great  an  esti- 
mate for  the  human  defenses,  which  were  \\\  a  most  effective  state 
at  the  end  of  the  year  1885.  Scarcely  three  months  had  flitted 
away  before  this  immense  force  was  mobilized.  Compared  with 
England  in  the  Crimean  War,  or  the  third  Napoleon  in  the  Prus- 
sian war,  or  the  Czar  himself  in  the  Russo-Turkish  War,  the 
military  readiness  and  resources  of  Turkey  are  immensely  to  her 
credit. 

This  could  not  have  occurred  without  a  financial  prop  beneath 
her  military  strength.  As  Turkey  has  been  always  considered  in 
the  light  of  a  pauper,  or  bankrupt,  before  the  bourses  of  the  world 


620  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

and  in  the  eye  of  nations,  it  may  be  as  well  to  say  that  not  more 
loyal  to  her  integrity  were  her  reserves  and  her  army  than  her 
bankers  and  her  merchants  in  the  financial  stress.  It  was  to  me 
a  special  marvel  that  Turkey  should  have  met  the  extraordinary 
costly  military  expenditure  with  so  much  facility  and  readiness. 
For,  be  it  known  that  the  present  mode  of  carrying  on  war  is  by  • 
no  means  to  be  likened  to  that  of  the  age  of  the  bow  and  arrow, 
or  even  to  that  of  the  old  musket  or  the  smooth-bore  gun. 

The  Sultan  had  called  his  reserves  to  the  probable  point  of 
attack.  He  had  transferred  them  from  his  Asiatic  provinces. 
He  had  collected  vast  materials  of  war.  Was  the  money  for  these 
purposes  borrowed  ?  No;  unless  it  be  a  half  a  million  sterling,  by 
an  arrangement  with  a  Smyrna  railway  company.  There  were 
negotiations  for  money  with  a  prominent  Austrian  banker,  and  with 
the  Imperial  Ottoman  Bank,  but  the  Turk  was  able  to  refuse  the 
terms,  as  too  onerous,  although  they  were  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  old  usury  rates  which  he  had  formerly  been  compelled 
to  pay.  There  was  no  urgent  need  of  money,  apparently,  in  the 
Turkish  exchequer,  and  this  was  the  astonishing  element.  It  was 
more  unexpected  than  her  military  strength.  A  decade  before, 
she  had  compromised  with  her  creditors.  She  had  almost  repu- 
diated a  portion  of  her  debt;  but  she  kept  her  compromise  and 
paid  the  reduced  interest.  That  interest  amounted  to  two  mill- 
ions of  sterling  a  year.  She  kept  her  faith,  notwithstanding  the 
great  demand  for  her  military  expenses. 

The  financial  history  of  Turkey  for  twelve  months  before  the 
end  of  the  last  year  shows  that  the  external  debt  was  provided  for, 
and  the  floating  debt  reduced  to  little  or  nothing.  The  revenue 
met  the  expenditures,  with  a  probable  mcrease  of  the  revenue  and  a 
decrease  of  the  expenditures.  If  the  new  commercial  treaties 
which  were  then  inaugurated,  are  concluded,  it  will  increase  the 
revenue  by  a  larger  general  tariff  against  foreign  nations.  There 
may  be  more  revenue,  if  not  so  much  liberty  to  trade.  A  new 
Minister  of  Finance  was  named  at  the  end  of  the  year  1886.  His 
reforms  bid  fair  to  make  some  improvements  in  taxation,  so  as  to 
make  the  vast,  rich  and  virgin  land  smile  with  a  better  cultivation. 

So  that,  based  on  the  inchoate  enterprises  of  Turkey,  which 
the  Porte  seems  to  keep  in  its  grasp,  there  are  resources  beyond 
the  computation  of  any  fiscal  officer  of  the  Turkish  government. 
If  the  Turk  himself  abhors  the  influx  of  foreign  capital,  he  com- 


FINANCIAL  AMELIORATION.  62  I 

mits  fiscal  suicide,  for  no  nation,  and  certainly  not  our  own,  ever 
prohibited  the  influx  of  capital  which  would  develop  industry 
without  sacrificing  something  of  future  prominence  and  glory. 

If  I  should  make  a  resume  of  the  financial  and  political  con- 
dition of  Turkey  and  compare  it  with  a  year  and  a  half  ago, 
I  should  say  that  it  is  less  critical  now  than  it  was  then.  It 
improves.  It  advances  toward  a  sounder  system.  Abuses  are 
melting  away.  There  is  a  closer  system  of  accountability,  and 
although  the  impediments  of  1886  were  happily  tided  over,  as  I 
have  undertaken  to  explain,  the  operations  of  1887  indicate  a  steady 
pursuit  upon  stable  ground,  after  an  economic  system  which 
will  give  to  Turkey  a  new  hold  upon  the  sympathies  and  business 
of  mankind. 

Is  it  said:  That  she  does  not  pay  her  army;  that  she  is  yet 
in  arrears;  and  that  her  contracts  are  yet  to  be  complied  with? 
This  may  be  so;  but  beyond  the  annuity  which  she  pays  to  her 
public  creditors,  she  has  had  her  secret  resources.  These  were 
found  in  the  splendid  railways  which  are  possible,  even  probable, 
and  the  mines,  which  are  richer  than  the  dreams  of  avarice.  These 
were,  and  can  be,  hypothecated,  in  the  emergencies  of  her  future. 

Do  you  ask  whether  she  has  mitigated  her  taxing  system  ?  I 
need  not  repeat  here  that  her  tariff  is  a  sign  of  liberality  beyond 
that  of  more  boastful  nations,  but  that  her  direct  tithe-tax  has  not 
yet  been  mitigated.  Its  mode  of  collection  is  mischievous  and 
harassing;  but  it  has  been  ameliorated. 

From  all  these  statements  there  is  a  corollary  more  important 
than  the  conclusions.  While  as  a  formidable  antagonist  with 
Russia  in  former  wars,  she  suffered  enormously  by  reason  of  the 
poor  officering  of  her  army,  she  has  improved  in  that  regard. 
The  patient,  dogged,  almost  fanatical  courage  of  her  soldiery 
made  up  in  former  wars  for  lack  of  commanders.  Because  Turkey 
speaks  with  a  small,  still  voice,  displaying  caution  and  practicing 
prudence,  neither  provoking  that  Power  which  is  ready  to  leap 
upon  her  splendid  capital  at  the  first  provocation,  nor  offending 
the  German  and  Austro-Hungarian,  French  and  English  Powers 
in  her  own  natural  desire  to  assert  her  authority  in  her  own  vass.-jl 
provinces — it  does  not  follow  that  that  still,  small  voice  may  not 
be  as  potential  as  that  of  the  Prophet  of  old. 


CHAPTER   XLVI. 

IS   REFORM    POSSIBLE   IN   TURKEY  ?     RAILROADS  OF   THE   EMPIRE,  IN 
EXISTENCE    AND    PROJECTED. 

It  is  not  just  to  deny  credit  for  what  the  Turkish  government 
has  done.  No  doubt  there  are  many  wrong-doings  and  short- 
comings, in  administration,  which  should  be  corrected.  This  I 
have  been  made  officially  to  understand.  But  certainly,  in  com- 
parison with  the  Christian,  the  Turkish  population  has  nothing  to 
fear.  If  it  be  said  that  assassinations  are  frequent  in  Turkey,  and 
that  Sultans  have  been  dethroned  by  poison  and  poniard,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  two  Presidents  of  the  United  States  have 
been  assassinated,  and  that  Russia  has  also  been  the  scene,  and  is 
yet  the  scene,  of  crimes  of  this  nature.  As  to  venality,  there 
may  be  much  apathy  in  the  Turkish  administration.  My  observ- 
ation is  that  her  sins  of  omission  are  greater  than  those  of 
commission. 

The  charge  alleged  to  have  been  made  by  the  Russian  Ambas- 
sador, M.  Nellidoff,  that  England  secured  the  assent  of  Turkey 
to  the  recent  Egyptian  convention  by  the  payment  of  ^600,000, 
was  indignantly  denied.  To  those  who  know  Sir  William  White, 
the  present  Grand  Vizier — Kiamil  Pasha — and  the  Sultan  himself, 
there  was  no  need  of  any  vehemence  by  way  of  denial.  If  the 
English  government  were  as  generous  as  the  sum  represents,  the 
objects  to  be  attained  by  the  treaty  were  of  such  little  practical 
consequence  that  they  fell  by  their  own  insignificance.  Had  the 
amount  named  passed  into  the  Turkish  Treasury  for  railroad  con- 
cessions, we  could  understand  the  value  of  the  grants  and  the 
integrity  of  the  transaction. 

I  agree  with  those  who  believe  that  the  Turkish  government 
does  not  need  any  betterment  of  the  laws.  The  laws  are  admirable; 
the  machinery  is  made  on  a  perfect  plan.  It  is  the  administration, 
if  anything,  that  is  wanting.  Besides,  there  is  always  some  other 
nation  ready  to  pounce  upon  every  possible  peccadillo  of  the 

622 


MIDHAT  PASHA  AS  A  REFORMER.  6^3 

Turkish  administration,  and  hold  it  up  to  scorn  as  a  sign  of 
Turkish  improgressiveness  and  decay. 

Do  you  ask  if  there  has  been  any  liberality  in  Turkey;  any 
experiment  on  the  line  of  improvement  and  freedom  ?  I  cannot 
say  that  there  has  been  much.  There  was  a  Constitution  and  a 
Congress  in  the  reign  of  Abdul  Aziz.  Both  were  failures.  They 
happened  in  the  stress  of  a  general  upturning.  Midhat  Pasha 
was  the  Grand  Vizier,  and  the  genius  of  this  reformatory  en- 
deavor. He  was  regarded  as  an  enlightened  statesman.  He 
was  educated  in  France,  while  it  was  under  the  sway  of  the  third 
Napoleon.  Like  John  Locke,  he  could  elaborate  an  organic  law, 
which  seemed  logical,  but  his  polity  was  not  practical.  He  was  fond 
of  the  illusions  of  politics,  and  must  have  been  delighted  with  every- 
thing in  France,  except  the  conclusion  of  Napoleon's  reign.  He 
had  no  difficulty  in  adopting  advanced  theories,  even  when  he 
alarmed  the  old  Turkish  party.  Having  afterward  been  compli- 
cated with  the  assassination  of  Abdul  Aziz,  he  was  sent  into 
Coventry.  He  has  never  been  heard  of  since.  Considering  the 
condition  of  the  ruling  powers  in  other  countries;  considering  the 
absolute  tyranny  and  ambition  of  the  Czar;  considering  the  bigo- 
try which  Russia  exercises,  not  merely  toward  the  Hebrews,  but 
toward  Lutherans  and  other  Protestants,  of  which  the  world  knows 
but  little — the  present  liberal  conditions  of  Turkish  rule,  in  spite 
of  her  anomalous  position,  deserve  unstinted  commendation. 

There  have  been  many  reforms  dictated  to  Turkey  by  the 
European  Powers.  Her  constitution  is  not  yet  formally  aba»- 
gated.  It  surpasses  in  liberality  the  provisions  of  other  European 
states.  Among  its  valuable  features  is  a  proclamation  of  the 
equality  of  Moslem  and  Christian  before  the  law.  Was  this  a 
novelty?  No:  not  even  in  Turkey.  The  celebrated  Hatti-Scherif, 
by  which  Abdul  Medjid  glorified  his  reign,  had  three  provisions: 
Firsts  Guarantees  to  his  own  subjects  as  to  the  fierfect  security  of 
life,  honor  and  fortune;  Second,  A  regular  system  of  taxation; 
and  Thirds  An  equally  regular  system  of  military  levies  and  dura- 
tion  of  service.  There  never  was  a  decree  promulgated  and  sanc- 
tioned with  so  much  ceremony  as  this  celebrated  **  Hatti."  If 
it  has  not  been  carried  out  in  practice,  it  is  only  because  Turkey 
has  been  too  ipuch  occupied  in  defending  the  integrity  of  her 
territory  and  the  existence  of  her  government.  Scarcely  a  day 
passes  over  the  Bosporus  that  Turkey  has  not  been  compelled, 


624  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

if  not  to  do  battle  in  this  behalf,  upon  fields  of  carnage,  at  least 
to  contend  upon  the  less  sanguinary  fields  of  diplomacy. 

I  confess  that  such  a  reformer  as  Midhat  Pasha  has  not  come 
fully  up  to  my  ideal;  for  facts  jut  out  prominently  in  his  career 
to  indicate  more  selfishness  than  patriotism.  He  was  neither  a 
Madison,  a  Cavour,  a  Thiers,  or  a  Gambetta,  much  less  a  Bis- 
marck, a  Derby,  or  a  Gladstone.  Besides,  it  is  said,  that  the 
order  for  the  Bulgarian  outrages,  for  which  so  much  reproach 
was  fixed  upon  the  Turkish  government,  is  attributable  to  him. 
If  that  be  the  case,  his  banishment  into  southwestern  Arabia,  for 
aiding  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  death  of  Abdul  Aziz,  was 
neither  unjust  nor  regrettable.  But  his  schemes  and  fate,  how- 
ever, mark  an  era  in  Turkish  movements  looking  to  the  regener- 
ation of  the  state. 

Lately,  Turkey  has  had  no  statesman  who  has  energized  any 
great  movement  for  the  betterment  of  her  fundamental  govern- 
ment. She  has  had,  and  has  needed,  astute  diplomatists  and 
capable  financiers.  She  has  concentrated  her  energies  for  self- 
existence  upon  diplomacy  and  her  fiscal  system.  She  has  been 
weak — she  is  yet  weak  ;  and  has  thereby  invited  encroachment, 
as  well  as  because  she  has  been  and  is  poor.  When  her  credit  is 
re-established  she  will  be  rich,  because  she  has  the  means  of 
being  so  in  her  mines  and  lands.  There  is  a  vigorous  life  in  her 
empire  which  only  needs  arousal.  Enterprise  and  money  would 
develop  it.  Turkey  has  not  failed  in  military  achievements.  Why 
should  she  be  smitten  with  languor,  when  rivalry  with  her  old  Slav 
enemy  seems  to  be  imminent !  All  the  evanescent  glories  of  her 
past  are  nothing,  unless  in  this  nineteenth  century  she  cultivates 
physical  enterprise,  and  that  mechanical  ingenuity  which  shortens 
time,  develops  industry,  and  makes  even  of  such  little  nations^as 
Belgium  powerful  factors  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  railroads  in  Turkey  proper  are  a  mere  bagatelle,  com- 
pared with  those  of  Germany,  France,  or  our  own  country.  In 
this  we  are  not  counting  the  railways  of  Egypt — the  mileage  of 
which  is  considerable  for  its  area  and  population.  There  are 
but  five  railways  in  Turkey  proper. 

The ^r^/ runs,  and  with  many  possible  and  probable  connec- 
tions with  the  European  system,  to  Adrianople  from  Constanti- 
nople. It  is  otherwise  of  great  utility,  although  it  is  not  sub- 
merged under  encomiums  on  account  of  its  conduct. 


RAILROADS  OF  TURKEY. 


625 


The  second  is  in  Cilicia.  It  runs  from  Mersina  to  Tarsus,  and 
thence  to  Adana.  This  railroad  is  not  of  great  length,  but  it 
makes  up  for  its  brevity  by  the  richness  and  produce  of  the  soil, 
and  its  historic  and  religious  associations.  Notwithstanding 
these  attractions,  the  country  has  suffered  the  past  year  by  a 
drought,  which  has  impoverished  the  people,  even  unto  starvation. 
If  you  would  visit  Tarsus  now,  for  lack  of  other  provender,  you 
might  feast  your  eyes  on  a  castle,  alleged  to  be  built  by  Bajazet, 
the  traditional  tomb  of  Sardanapalus,  who  founded  the  city, 
and  the  supposed  church  in  which  St.  Paul  baptized  his  con- 
verts, and  the  imaginary  tree  which  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles 
planted  with  his  own  hands  !  The  city  is  but  half  the  size  it  was 
when  it  claimed  Paul  as  a  student  and  a  citizen.  Still,  it  is  no 
"  mean  city  "  now;  for  a  place  which  had  such  a  founder  as  the 
Assyrian  monarch,  such  a  university  in  the  old  eras,  that  it  rivaled 
Athens  and  Alexandria,  and  such  Grecian  grandeur  as  Alexander, 
and  such  Roman  pride  as  Mark  Antony  and  Julius  Caesar  con- 
tributed— can  never  be  truly  called  a  "mean  city." 

The  third  is  the  railroad  from  Scutari,  opix)site  Constanti- 
nople to  Ismid.  The  western  terminus  at  Chalcedon  is  known  as 
the  entrepot  of  the  caravan  commerce  of  fifty  years  ago  ;  and  its 
eastern  terminus  at  Ismid  marks  the  place  of  ancient  Nicomedia. 
It  is  near  Nicaea — where  the  creed  of  Christendom  was  estab- 
lished by  the  Fathers  in  the  fourth  century.  Around  Ismid  there 
is  a  swamp,  through  which  hunters  in  high  India-rubber  lxx)ts 
take  their  weary  way  after  snipe,  woodcock  and  an  occasional 
wild-boar.  The  American  missionaries  in  the  vicinity  are  en- 
deavoring to  make  the  swamp  blossom  as  the  rose,  by  discreet 
cultivation  of  the  indigenous  population. 

The  fourth  is  the  Aidin  railroad  ;  it  runs  out  of  Smyrna 
toward  and  beyond  Ephesus,  into  the  richest  fig  and  raisin  coun- 
try of  the  world.  It  is  a  paying  road,  and  is  under  English  con- 
trol. The  product  of  the  soil  and  the  industry  of  the  people  give 
to  its  trade  extensive  circulation,  and  to  Smyrna  a  commercial 
importance  only  equaled  by  the  beauty  of  its  women  and  the 
bigoted  arrogance  of  its  Greek  population. 

The  fifth  is  known  as  the  Turco-Servian  junction  rai\^'ays. 
They  are  beginning  to  take  on  force,  and  are  almost  ready  to 
reach  their  destination  at  Salonica,  and  thence  to  all  the  world. 
In  fact,  the  new  prince  of  Bulgaria  and  the  sovereign  of  Sen,'ia 


626  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

have  been  junketing  with  their  people  at  Pirot  over  the  opening  of 
the  section  from  Nisch  to  that  place.  Under  the  convention 
between  "the  four  Powers  of  1883,"  the  Nisch- Vranja  Salonica 
junction  line  should  long  since  have  been  opened  to  the  ^gean 
Sea.  Turkey  is  said  to  be  the  obstacle.  When  the  agreement  is 
carried  out,  then  will  a  rich  country  be  made  accessible,  either  to 
the  Danube  or  to  the  sea. 

This  is  at  best  but  a  poor  showing  for  the  railroad  enterprise  of 
a  land  like  Turkey.  Since  she  is  so  rich  in  mines,  arable  land, 
and  resources  of  all  kinds,  why  is  she  not  more  prosperous  ? 
Simply  because  of  the  lamentable  lack  of  transportation  and 
enterprise.  She  must  reach  out  into  the  old  haunts  of  Mongolia, 
as  Russia  is  doing  by  her  Trans-Caspian  railway  system.  Asia 
Minor  and  the  lands  and  waters  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula  are  still 
hers  ;  and  with  them,  could  she  not  command  a  better  civiliza- 
tion ?  By  joining  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  could 
she  not  create  a  better  system  of  transportation  than  the  canal 
which  joins  the  Mediterranean  with  the  Red  Sea  ? 

The  project  of  a  canal  for  such  termini  has  been  started.  It 
begins  on  the  mainland  nearly  opposite  and  east  of  Cyprus, 
follows  the  Aurauntes,  and  proceeds  thence  to  the  Euphrates. 
Thence  the  route  is  by  steamers  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  It  would 
thus  save  fully  six  days,  or  two  thousand  miles,  between  London 
and  Bombay.  This  canal  is  only  a  project.  In  our  time,  the 
railroad  supersedes  the  canal. 

No  one  can  consider  this  matter  of  a  railway  system  in  the 
Orient,  without  taking  into  account  the  Russian  Central  Asian 
system.  If  there  were  not  so  much  antagonism  between  Russia 
and  England,  there  might  be  a  Turkish  connection  made  with 
the  Russian  and  the  Indian  railway  system.  There  are  political 
and  dynastic  objections  to  this  arrangement.  A  line  which  would 
follow  the  railway  from  London  to  Dover,  and  from  Calais  to  Brus- 
sels, Cologne,  Berlin,  Warsaw,  Kief,  Khartoff,  and  Vlaid  Kafkas  at 
the  foot  of  the  Caucasus,  would  soon  reach  the  Caspian  Sea,  on  a 
plan  already  projected,  if  not  accomplished  ;  so  that  London  and 
the  Caspian  Sea  would  be  bound  together  by  an  iron  chain,  without 
a  break.  Then  crossing  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  new  port  of  Usun- 
ada,  it  meets  the  terminus  of  the  Russian  Central  Asia  railroad. 
This  railroad,  reaching  from  Merv  to  Afghanistan  by  way  of 
Herat,  would  land  you  at  Quetta.     There  it  is  allied  with  the 


RAIL  WA  YS  TO  INDIA .  627 

Indian  railway  system.  Thus  Asia  in  its  centre  and  south  would 
be  connected  with  the  farthest  and  most  potential  realms  of 
Europe.  All  this  and  more,  if  the  great  Powers  were  not  jealous 
of  one  another. 

Once  talking  with  the  Sultan,  he  remarked  :  "I  have  thought 
of  sending  my  son  Selim  in  a  naval  vessel  around  the  world. 
How  far  is  it  to  New  York  from  here  ?  " 

I  said  :  "  Your  Majesty,  I  have  just  received  a  letter,  only  thir- 
teen days  old,  from  New  York." 

He  was  astonished  ;  I  presumed  to  add  this  platitude  : 

"  Much  of  the  way  through  Europe  is  upon  land,  and  as  the 
locomotive  has  less  resistance  from  the  air  than  the  vessel  upon 
the  water  ;  and  whereas  the  latter  can  only  go  twenty  miles  an 
hour,  while  the  other  makes  sixty — there  is  great  utility  in  having 
as  much  railroading  around  our  star  as  is  consistent  with  the 
safety,  intercourse  and  comfort  of  its  peoples." 

Then  I  asked  him  the  question  : 

'•  How  long,  Your  Majesty,  does  it  take  your  messengers  to  go 
from  Constantinople  to  Bagdad  ?  " 

He  replied,  smilingly,  "  You  could  go  to  America  and  return, 
and  go  home  again  from  here,  before  my  mail  messengers  could 
reach  the  Tigris  or  the  Euphrates." 

This  conversation  was  leading  somewhat  in  the  direction  of 
railroad  building.  I  had  no  scheme.  There  were  no  Americans 
then  pushing  any  enterprises  in  that  direction.  The  Sultan  had 
evidently  been  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  railroads  through 
his  unsettled  territory  ;  so  that  the  population  might  follow  the 
locomotive,  and  the  lands  be  made  valuable  by  facile  modes  of 
carrying  freight.  It  is  no  new  project — that  of  making  a  railroad 
to  the  Euphrates,  and  down  its  valley  to  the  Persian  Clulf.  Per- 
haps for  that  purpose  the  English  leased  Cyprus.  It  would  not 
be  hard,  at  one  bound,  to  connect  that  island  with  the  corner 
of  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Gulf  of  Iskanderoon  ;  and  then, 
making  water-stations  of  Antioch  and  Aleppo,  fol'ow  the  valley 
of  the  Euphrates,  with  all  its  wealth  of  soil  and  immensity  of 
interest,  to  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  Between  that  valley 
and  that  of  the  Tigris,  lies  old  Mesopotamia,  and  further  on, 
the  East  Indies.  Constantinople  would  then  become  the  distrib- 
uting centre  of  Europe  and  Asia. 

Besides,  a  railroad   from  Constantinople  should   reach   out 


628  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

toward  Armenia.  It  has  progressed  only  so  far  as  the  end  of  the 
Gulf  of  Ismid.  A  few  more  propulsions,  and  it  will  be  in  the 
opulent  country  around  Angora  ;  and  then  it  is  not  so  very  diffi- 
cult, following  the  fortieth  parallel,  to  reach  the  plains  of  Erze- 
roum  and  the  upper  Euphrates, 

Disregarding  the  Suez  canal  as  on  one  side,  the  two  hundred 
millions  of  people  in  Europe  might  shake  hands  with  three  hundred 
millions  in  Asia.  London  would  be  as  near  to  Bombay  as  New 
York  is  to  Liverpool,  and  the  lines  of  empire,  if  not  of  dynasty  and 
boundary,  together  with  the  stir  and  marts  of  commerce,  would 
be  changed  with  the  changing  of  the  routes  of  transportation. 

As  this  volume  goes  to  press,  rumors  quite  authentic — much 
more  authentic  than  the  ordinary  statements  from  the  Orient — are 
current  that,  through  the  aid  of  Sir  William  White,  the  British 
Minister,  an  Imperial  //a^/has  been  issued  by  the  Sultan  to  a 
syndicate  of  British  financiers,  granting  them  the  right  to  con- 
struct a  grand  trunk  line  over  the  great  central  plateau  of  Asia 
Minor.  Its  termini  will  be  Constantinople  and  Bagdad.  If  this 
be  true,  it  probably  ends  a  long  contest  for  supremacy  among 
the  rival  speculators  for  concessions  applied  for  by  the  citizens  of 
different  nationalities. 

The  French  are  vexed  at  this  decision  of  the  Sultan.  As 
a  consequence,  Russia  is,  if  possible,  more  irate  than  France. 
Protests  are  filed  against  it  ;  but  the  Sultan  answers  them  by 
saying  that,  as  a  railway  in  Turkey  affects  no  frontier  of  Russia 
or  France,  it  is  not  a  question  which  concerns  any  other  govern- 
ment than  that  of  the  Ottoman. 

The  line  which  is  proposed  to  be  run,  starts  out  from  Scutari, 
and  pursues  the  present  line  as  far  as  Ismid.  It  touches  at  many 
prominent  towns  in  Asia  Minor,  and,  among  the  rest,  at  Angora, 
Sivas,  Harpoot  and  Diarbekir,  until  it  reaches  Bagdad,  the  grand 
old  romantic  capital  of  Mesopotamia.  This  should  interest 
America,  whose  missionaries,  as  I  can  avouch,  are  very  hard  to 
reach  at  their  distant  stations  in  Armenia  and  Kurdistan.  The 
running  of  this  road  will  not  only  develop  a  line  rich  in  minerals 
and  agricultural  wealth,  but  revolutionize  the  social  condition  of 
the  people  along  the  route.  The  condition  of  the  country  upon 
the  Persian  and  Russian  border  is  lamentable.  By  Article  61  of 
the  Berlin  treaty,  Turkey  agreed  to  "  carry  out,  without  further 
delay,  the  ameliorations  and  reforms  demanded  by  local  require- 


REGENERATION  OF  ASIA  MIS'OR.  629 

ments  in  the  provinces  occupied  by  the  Armenians,  and  to  guar- 
antee their  security  against  the  Circassians  and  Kurds."  It  also 
agreed,  "  periodically  to  make  known  the  steps  taken  to  this 
effect  to  the  Powers,  who  will  superintend  their  application."  Not- 
withstanding the  presence  of  numerous  Russian  and  English  Con- 
suls, and  one  American  Consul  recently  established  at  Sivas, 
nothing  has  been  done  to  effectuate  these  guarantees.  The  old 
foes  of  Xenophon  on  his  retreat — the  Kurds — harry  the  Armenians. 
The  brigands  roam  at  will  over  the  rich  lands  east  of  Erzeroum. 
They  pursue  parties  even  to  the  old  Georgia  capital — Tiflis — and 
kindly  relieve  the  armed  Muscovite  convoys  of  the  collected 
^xes  and  cash  wherewithal  the  Russian  government  is  wont  to 
pay  its  officers.  When  pursued,  these  brigands  dash  over  the 
borders  into  Persia,  and  are  safe  from  pursuit. 

A  railroad  through  this  harassed  land  will  be  a  godsend.  It 
is  now  in  a  fairer  way  of  being  constructed  than  at  any  time  since 
it  was  projected,  sixteen  years  ago,  by  Mr.  Charles  Waring. 

It  is  within  my  knowledge  that  Governor  Stanford,  of  Califor- 
nia, was  tendered  the  concession  for  this  road,  while  on  a  visit  to 
Constantinople.  Reasons  of  pre-occupation  in  such  matters 
prevented  his  acceptance.  Some  Americans  subsequently  en- 
deavored to  get  a  foothold,  so  as  to  apply  the  American  system,  as 
they  called  it,  of  a  subvention  of  lands  and  mines  for  the  building 
of  the  road.  As  these  adventurers  had  no  substantial  backing, 
they  naturally  failed.  When  they  failed,  they  indulged  in  much 
objurgation  upon  the  writer  for  not  promoting,  as  Minister,  their 
sinister  designs.  Besides,  they  made  reclamations,  as  I  feared  they 
would,  upon  the  Ottoman  Treasury,  for  alleged  promises.  These 
claims  have  been  rejected  by  the  honest  indignation  of  my  suc- 
cessor, Mr.  Straus. 

When  it  is  understood  that  Constantinople  depends  upon 
other  countries  for  her  supply  of  food,  and  sj^ends  nearly  ten 
million  dollars  a  year  for  that  object,  when  she  might  be  sup. 
ported  at  home,  with  a  proper  transjxjrtation,  from  the  plains  of 
Angora  and  Adarbazar;  and  when  it  is  considered  that  a  large 
surplus  of  grain  for  exportation  might  be  a  consequence  of  this 
railroad — the  project  assumes  even  a  grander  proportion  than  that 
of  mere  military  strategy.  Why  may  not  this  splendid  enteri)ri8C 
restore  to  Constantinople  her  ancient  advantage  as  a  commer- 
cial centre  >     Joining  the  Roumelian  and  Ser\'ian  lines  from  the 


630  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

west  with  this  railroad  to  the  East,  would  she  not  stand  promi- 
nently on  a  route  more  direct  to  India  than  the  Suez  canal  ?  She 
becomes  at  once  and  again  the  capital  of  Asia  Minor — in  fact  as 
well  as  in  form,  in  commerce  as  well  as  in  civism.  In  that  case, 
Persia  would  depend  more  upon  Turkey  than  upon  Russia;  Eng- 
land would  be  nearer  by  many  days  to  India;  and  the  vast  plateau 
of  Armenia  would  be  better  defended  from  the  Czar  than  by  any 
other  possible  mode.  It  would  enable  Turkey  speedily  to  com- 
mand the  gorges  of  the  Taurus  mountains,  and  to  occupy  them 
in  force  whenever  menaced. 

Leaving  Ismid,  the  projected  railroad  pursues  a  course  toward 
Angora,  to  which  point  it  will  be  completed  in  four  years;  and  in 
four  years  more  to  Bagdad.  It  is  to  be  thirteen  hundred  miles 
long.  The  main  line  is  to  cost  not  less  than  one  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  The  engineering  difficulties,  though  considerable,  are 
more  easily  surmounted  than  those  of  other  railroads  which  have 
been  built  within  the  past  few  years. 

It  must  be  patent  to  the  reader  that  this  project  could  not  have 
been  secured  without  great  diplomatic  tact  and  exertion — I  will 
not  say  great  expenditure.  It  is  no  new  project;  for  in  the  time 
of  Abdul  Medjid,  during  the  Crimean  War,  the  question  came  up 
as  one  of  military  strategy.  It  was  an  anxious  question  to 
England  in  the  time  of  the  Indian  mutiny.  The  Sultan  of  that 
day,  and  his  Grand  Vizier,  blew  hot  and  blew  cold;  and  though 
surveys  were  made,  blue-books  published,  maps  fabricated,  and 
public  discussions  held  everywhere — the  interests  of  France  in 
Syria  dominated,  and  the  project  fell  through.  Again  and  again, 
the  Minister  of  Public  Works  at  the  Porte,  together  with  com- 
missions made  up  of  Armenians,  Greeks  and  Turks,  with  now 
and  then  a  Frenchman  or  a  German,  presented  the  matter.  But 
the  successor  of  Abdul  Medjid — Abdul  Aziz — threw  cold  water 
upon  the  movement.  Then  Mr.  Cazalet,  a  London  merchant, 
formed  a  syndicate  for  this  object.  This  too  failed.  So  it  has 
come  down  to  the  present  time,  which  may  see  its  consummation 
by  the  English,  assisted  by  those  of  other  nationalities,  probably 
German  and  Austrian  capitalists. 

There  have  been  various  plans  to  reach  Bagdad  from  the 
Bosporus,  and  various  branches  were  projected  from  the  main 
branch;  for  instance,  one  to  Aleppo,  and  on  to  Urfah  and  Mar- 
din,  and  so   by  the   Tigris  valley  to  Bagdad.     Another  was  via 


CONDITIONS  OF  TURKISH  RAIL  WA  Y  SUCCESS.       63 1 

Koniah  and  Adana,  with  a  branch  to  Diarbekir,  and  so  on  to 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris. 

If  the  Turkish  cr.pire  holds  together;  if  Austria  will  adhere 
to  her  policy  of  trading  by  sea  and  land,  east  and  west;  if  the  need 
of  military  strategy  remains  the  same  as  it  is  to-day  for  the  Pow- 
ers which  are  seeking  prosperity  and  influence  by  roaming  over 
land  and  sea  to  annex  loose  territories — then  there  is  every  likeli- 
hood of  the  construction  of  this  line  to  the  Indian  frontier.  Nay, 
of  two  lines:  for  if  this  one  be  made,  there  will  be  constructed 
two  fast  routes  to  the  far  East;  one  under  Austrian  auspices, 
through  Salonica  by  sea  to  Alexandretta,  and  by  rail  to  Bagdad, 
perhaps  there  to  meet  an  Anglo-Indian  line  through  Persia  and 
Beluchistan  to  Kurrachee.  The  other  will  avoid  all  sea  passage, 
save  the  mere  ferry  across  the  Bosporus,  and  run  by  Constantino- 
ple, Scutari,  Diarbekir  to  Mosul  and  Bagdad.  It  is  thought  that 
Bombay  will  thus  be  brought  within  eleven  and  Calcutta  twelve 
days  of  London.  But  letters  and  passengers  from  Bombay 
already  reach  London  in  nineteen  days,  on  a  route  three-fourths 
of  which  is  in  England's  own  hands;  so  that  the  expenditure  of 
$100,000,000,  which  is  the  lowest  estimate,  may  not  seem,  in  the 
eyes  of  English  capitalists,  to  be  very  well  laid  out. 

But  it  is  no  fanciful  scheme,  so  long  as  the  railway  can  beat  the 
water-way  in  flcetness  and  cheapness;  and  although  the  local  travel 
and  freightage  may  not  be  great,  nor  the  prospect  of  travel  through 
Mesopotamian,  Persian  and  Beluchi  deserts  transporting,  in  a 
sentimental  sense;  still,  capital  is  likely  to  pocket  fair  dividends  by 
a  land  route  which  brings  the  ends  of  our  star  so  near  to  each 
other  as  this  project  contemplates. 

The  sums  which  have  been  expended  by  syndicates  in  procur- 
ing these  advantages  from  the  Porte,  are  as  fabulous  in  statement 
as  they  are  fictitious  in  fact.  The  present  Sultan  took  hold  of  the 
matter  with  an  honest  mtention.  This  was  evidenced  by  his 
selection  of  Mouktar  Pasha — now  the  Commissioner  of  Turkey  to 
Egypt — to  examine  the  projects.  Never  has  a  breath  of  scandal 
been  uttered  against  his  name.  I  know  whereof  I  speak  ;  for 
he  is  a  warm  friend  of  the  writer.  He  reported  in  favor  of  sev- 
eral lines  from  Constantinople,  to  o|ien  up  the  country  of  Asia 
Minor.  His  fellow  commissioners  only  recommended  routes,  but 
did  not  lay  down  absolute  conditions.  Still,  nothing  was  done  in 
pursuance   of   their   recommendation.      The    German   influence 


^32  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

seemed  then  to  prevail  in  disparagement  of  the  enterprise  thus 
recommended.  It  is  supposed  now,  by  those  who  are  initiated, 
that  the  German  influence,  along  with  that  of  Austria,  has  more 
or  less  to  do  with  the  recent  firman.  The  present  Grand  Vizier 
also  takes  an  interest  in  the  matter,  and  it  is  fair  to  presume  that 
the  long  conflict  upon  which  so  much  depends  for  the  vitalizing 
energy  of  this  empire  will  have  a  successful  termination. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 

ORIENTAL    PROBLEMS—  PRINCE     ALEXANDER    AND   THE    INSURREC- 
TION   IN    BULGARIA. 

In  the  mutations  of  European  politics  and  the  phases  of  the 
Oriental  question,  it  is  difficult  to  fix  for  a  long  time  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  Ottoman  empire.  Changes  have  taken  place,  not  only 
in  its  European  provinces,  but  in  its  African  and  Asiatic  depend- 
encies. It  is  a  constantly  recurring  problem,  and  has  been  for 
the  last  hundred  years:  What  shall  be  the  outcome  of  these 
Oriental  movements  ?  how  are  they  affected  by  the  movements  of 
trade,  railroads  and  the  aggressions  of  other  Powers  ? 

First,  it  may  be  well  to  ascertain,  up  to  this  present  writing, 
what  are  the  various  bonds,  according  to  their  strength  or  weak- 
ness, by  which  this  empire,  once  so  great  and  strong,  is  now  held 
together.  Are  they  ropes  of  sand  ?  The  Ottoman  empire  has  not, 
in  the  usual  sense  of  the  term,  any  colonial  possessions,  but  it 
includes  certain  provinces  in  Europe  and  Africa  which  are  more 
or  less  dependencies,  or  provinces,  of  the  central  power  at  Con-. 
stantinople.  Some  of  these  are  held  by  the  frailest  tenure.  This 
tenure  is  known,  and  has  been  known  for  centuries,  as  that  of 
**  Suzerainty."  The  "immediate  possessions"  of  Turkey  in 
Europe  contain  only  about  4,500,000  population,  of  the  8,650,- 
000  of  the  whole  population  of  Turkey  in  Europe.  The  other 
possessions  of  Turkey  in  Europe  are  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina, 
and  the  Sandjak,  or  sub-province  of  Novibazar.  These  are 
"  occupied  "  by  Austro- Hungary,  under  treaty  stipulations.  They 
are  now  only  nominally  a  part  of  the  Ottoman  empire. 

Bulgaria  is  in  nearly  the  same  predicament.  By  the  terms  of 
the  Berlin  treaty,  it  should  be  ruled  by  a  prince  with  a  popular 
parliament.  Events  loosened  the  ties  of  "Suzerainty"  l)etween 
Sultan  and  prince.  They  are  now  nearly  severed.  Prince  Alex- 
ander of  Battenberg  was  selected  as  prince.  On  the  i8th  of  Sep- 
tember, A.  D.  1885,  he  moved  his  army   upon  Phillipopolis,  the 

633 


634  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

capital  of  East  Roumelia,  to  unite  the  two  Bulgarias,  so-called. 
East  Roumelia,  in  a.  d.  1880,  had  a  population  of  411,601.  It  is 
still  a  Turkish  province  in  Europe.  It  was,  and  is,  more  nearly 
connected  with  the  Porte  than  its  kindred  province  of  Bulgaria. 
It  is,  and  has  been,  for  two  years  nearly  in  transitu.  It  awaits 
either  the  wager  of  war  or  that  of  diplomacy,  to  ascertain  its  status 
and  establish  its  contentment  and  government.  Its  present  con- 
dition under  its  representative  assembly,  the  Sobranje,  a  responsi- 
ble ministry  and  a  new  prince,  elected  outside  the  treaty  of  Berlin 
— is  quite  anomalous. 

In  Asia  the  Turkish  possessions  have  a  population  of 
16,173,000.  In  Africa  the  same  remarks  may  be  applied  as 
those  in  reference  to  the  Balkan  provinces,  except  that  Tunis  may 
as  well  be  altogether  omitted.  France  has  that  province  irre- 
vocably. Tunis,  by  the  treaty  of  the  12th  of  May,  a.  d.  1881, 
was  placed  under  the  protectorate  of  France,  the  Bey  remaining 
as  a  quasi  sovereign.  The  relations  between  Tunis  and  the 
Porte  have  little  or  no  substance.  If  any,  it  is  that  of  the 
Mahometan  faith  and  a  semblance  of  suzerainty,  kept  up  in 
the  ancient  palace  of  the  Bey  by  the  blowing  of  a  trumpet  by 
a  soldier  of  loyalty  to  the  Sultan.  Egypt  is  now  in  the  joint 
possession  of  England  and  Turkey  ;  but  the  acknowledged 
supremacy  belongs  to  Turkey,  whatever  may  be  its  treaty  con- 
dition. The  total  population  of  Egypt  is  5,500,000.  That  of 
Tripoli  is  1,000,000,  Tripoli  is  still  a  part  of  the  Turkish  em- 
pire;  but  it  hangs  by  a  hair. 

This  statement  comprehends  all  that  is  left  of  Turkey  ;  but  it 
leaves  her  still  a  grand  empire. 

Without  discussing  the  vigor  of  that  faith  by  which  the 
Caliph  of  the  Moslem  world  exercises  so  much  religious  and 
moral  control,  is  it  not  enough  to  say  that  he  is  at  the  head  of  two 
hundred  millions  of  Moslems  ?  Although  that  control  may  be 
more  or  less  weakened,  according  to  the  remoteness  of  the  people 
ruled,  yet  the  Father  of  the  Faithful  exercises  other  and  more 
than  a  political  control,  in  distant  countries  which  are  under  other 
dynasties. 

No  census  has  yet  been  taken  of  the  Mahometan  people.  It 
is  impossible  to  ascertain  their  number.  Some  authorities  fix  the 
number  at  122,000,000;  others  at  160,000,000.  The  nearest 
approach  to  a  correct  estimate  has  been  made  by  an  Englishman, 


CENSUS  OF  THE  MOSLEM  WORLD.  635 

who  wrote  his  results  for  the  Fortnightly  RevieiVy  some  six  years 
ago.  He  stationed  himself  at  Yeddah,  the  seaport  town  leading 
to  Mecca.  There,  by  inquiries  of  pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  the 
Moslem  world — Russia,  India,  Borneo,  Northern  and  Central 
Africa,  including  the  Ottoman  empire — he  was  enabled  to  approxi- 
mate the  immense  numbers  which  make  up  this  still  vital  religion. 
He  fixed  them  at  200,000,000.  This  means  an  army  of  5,000,000 
to  be  arrayed,  in  a  crisis,  under  one  flag  and  commander.  Hence, 
when  the  sickly  condition  of  the  Turkish  empire  and  the  weak- 
ness of  the  rule  of  its  Sultan  is  depicted,  we  should  not  forget  its 
enormous  elemental  religious  power.  It  was  the  foundation  of  its 
early  dominion.  It  is  its  strongest  prop  to-day,  among  the  nations 
which  would  despoil  its  empire. 

The  Saracen  who  overran  the  Mediterranean  upon  all  its 
shores,  did  not  menace  Europe  so  truculently  as  the  Turk  who, 
in  following  him,  led  the  forces  of  Central  Asia  across  the  Dar- 
danelles into  the  European  continent.  The  Saracen  is  dead,  or, 
rather,  dormant.  He  may  be  energized  into  new  life  by  the  banner 
of  the  Prophet.  When  led  by  the  Turk,  with  new  arms  of  pre- 
cision and  new  motors  of  explosion  and  enginery — it  is  not  well 
to  surmise  too  emphatically  that  the  Moslem  devotees  will  be 
vanquished  in  their  contest  with  the  Muscovite,  even  though  that 
race  be  aided  by  Republican  France.  Besides,  there  are  other 
alliant  factors  to  be  considered  in  the  problem. 

*  *  ♦  *  ♦  *  * 

It  has  been  customary  for  the  Sultan,  at  the  end  of  Ramazan 
— the  season  of  religious  fasting — to  begin  a  season  of  festivity. 
This  is  a  religious  observance.  This  festive  season,  as  we  have 
described  it,  is  Bairam.  At  this  time  the  pious  Mahometan  not 
only  makes  sacrifice  on  the  graves  of  his  friends  and  relatives, 
but  he  indulges  in  much  congratulation.  We  have  seen,  at' 
the  beginning  of  this  occasion,  the  Sultan  holding  high  court  in 
the  palace  of  Dolma  Bagtch^.  At  this  time  he  receives  the  high 
dignitaries  of  the  Army,  Navy  and  state,  including  the  ecclesias- 
tical priesthood,  from  the  Sheik- Ul-Islam  down  to  the  lowliest 
Mufti,  or  head  of  a  dervish  organization. 

How  the  time  is  fixed  for  this  peculiar  welcome  to  all  the 
leading  people  of  his  capital  and  surroundings  has  been  pictured. 

At  the  last  Bairam  feast  in  a.  d.  1886,  there  was  much  doubt, 
owing  to  the  quality  of  the  weather,  as  to  when  the  grand  court 


636  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

should  be  held;  for  the  moon  was  quite  as  uncertain  as  Shake- 
speare himself  could  have  desired.  Being  at  the  isle  of  Prin- 
kipo,  we  depend  upon  a  telegram  for  our  time  to  start.  As  the 
court  is  held  at  the  first  day-break  after  the  discovery  of  the 
moon,  the  anxiety  is  increased. 

In  the  year  before,  1885,  no  such  difficulty  happens.  Then 
we  are  invited  to  come  from  Therapia,  down  the  Bosporus  with 
the  other  Legations,  to  observe  the  grand  ceremony.  When  half- 
way down,  our  launch  is  met  by  that  of  the  Sultan.  It  bears  the 
Crescent  and  the  Star.  It  has  on  board  an  adjutant  from  the 
palace.  He  hails  us  to  say  that  the  usual  Bairam  demonstrations 
are  postponed. 

On  making  inquiry,  I  ascertain  that  an  astonishing  emeute  has 
occurred  in  Bulgaria.  Prince  Alexander  has  committed  a  coup  d' 
etat.  He  has,  in  a  night,  annexed  East  Roumelia  to  his  princi- 
pality of  Bulgaria.  As  East  Roumelia  is  a  part  of  the  empire,  and 
is  not  by  any  treaty  a  part  of  Bulgaria,  this  audacious  step  of  the 
Prince  excites  the  wildest  commotion,  especially  among  the  gov- 
ernment people,  who  are  principally  Ottoman.  I  determine,  how- 
ever, to  pursue  my  journey.  If  I  cannot  enter  the  palace,  I  can 
at  least  see  the  Sultan  coming  from  the  mosque,  and  observe  the 
excitement  which  is  predominating  around  the  Imperial  quarters. 

After  the  Sultan  had  mounted  his  white  charger  to  ride  up  the 
hill,  through  the  narrow  streets  to  the  highway  which  leads  to  his 
palace,  there  is  a  bold  dash;  and  a  crush  of  officials,  civil  and 
religious,  military  and  naval,  in  carriages  and  on  horseback,  fol- 
low, and  vie  in  excited  vigor  with  each  other  for  the  lead.  The  gold 
lace  shimmers  upon  their  uniforms.  The  long  burnous  of  the 
priest  trembles  and  wavers  as  if  with  the  spirit  of  a  new  prophecy. 
What  is  the  cause  of  all  this  apparent  commotion  ?  Does  it  pre- 
sage the  distraction  of  the  empire  ?  Is  it  a  new  phase  of  the  old 
imbroglio  ?  Is  it  a  new  move  on  the  part  of  Russia  ?  What 
does  it  mean  ? 

It  becomes  necessary  for  the  American  Minister— in  pursuing 
his  instructions  from  Washington — "to  transmit  information  con- 
cerning the  policy  of  that  country  to  which  he  is  accredited." 

A  study  of  this  Bulgarian  question,  therefore,  becomes  a  duty. 
I  endeavor  to  make  an  impartial  observation.  As  the  burden 
of  Ministerial  correspondence,  so  far  as  it  affects  the  United 
States  is  concerned,  relates  mostly  to  capitulations  and  treaties 


THE  BULGARIAN  RE  VOL  T.  637 

by  which  American  interests  are  protected  in  the  East,  the  writer 
has  a  natural  bias  toward  Iceeping  the  faith  of  treaties.  His 
despatches  are  colored  with  this  peculiar  idea  of  faith-keeping. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  principality  of  Bulgaria  is  the 
creation  of  the  Berlin  treaty  in  a.  d.  1878.  When,  therefore, 
the  Bulgarian  people — like  an  overflowing  stream — dash  beyond 
the  proper  channel  by  an  unexpected  freshet  from  the  Balkan 
mountains,  is  it  to  be  wondered  that  consternation  falls  upon  the 
Porte  and  the  palace  ? 

It  is  regarded  as  strange  that  the  Turk  does  not  at  once  de- 
clare war,  and  send  the  seven  or  eight  thousand  troops  on  the 
Balkan  border  to  Phillipopolis,  the  capital  of  East  Roumelia. 
Thus  he  can  at  once  rescue  East  Roumelia  from  the  clutch  of 
this  Hessian  prince,  and  his  then  possible  ally,  the  Czar. 

But  it  should  be  remembered  that  it  is  because  the  Sultan  is 
patient,  moderate  and  forbearing  that  this  resort  to  violence  is 
not  had.  Although  Turkey  has  the  treaty-right  to  protect  East 
Roumelia  from  this  revolt  and  annexation — wiser  counsels  pre- 
vail in  the  mind  of  the  Sultan.  He  at  once  dismisses  the  old 
Cabinet  for  its  heedlessness  in  not  making  closer  observation  of 
the  events  which  were  preliminary  to  the  outbreak.  A  new  Grand 
Vizier  is  called  to  the  head  of  the  Ministry.  I  knew  him  very 
well  before  that  time,  not  only  by  his  reputation  as  a  Governor 
in  Syria,  but  by  his  ministerial  office  in  Stamboul.  This  man  is 
Kiamil  Pasha,  who  is  still  Grand  Vizier. 

When  this  sudden  uprising  in  Bulgaria  takes  place,  the  Prince 
expects  to  be  met  by  a  Turkish  array.  He  is  not  altogether 
unprepared.  When  he  arrives  at  Phillipopolis  he  finds  a  supply  of 
arms.  He  calls  out  every  male  inhabitant  between  the  ages  of 
eighteen  and  forty.  He  has  an  array  of  thirty-five  thousand  men. 
These  he  divides  into  lots  of  a  thousand  each.  He  then  begins 
telegraphing  to  the  Powers.  He  summons  all  the  tailors  of  the 
town  to  make  military  clothes.  The  tailors  rebel — bodkin  in  hand. 
Most  of  them  are  Greeks.  They  do  not  like  the  situation.  If 
East  Roumelia  be  freed  from  Turkish  rule,  why  not  Macedonia  ? 
They  are,  however,  starved  into  manufacturing  gray  overcoats. 
Then,  behold  an  army  in  which  each  soldier  has,  not  only  a  uni- 
form, but  an  opauk  sandal  and  a  sheepskin  hat.  Foreign  consuls 
remonstrate  in  vain.  Then  the  Prince  mixes  these  soldiers  up, 
gives  them  officers,  and  they  are  in  tolerably  good  fighting  trim. 


638  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

If  the  Turks  had  met  them  then,  what  a  Bulgarian  Bull  Run 
would  have  resulted! 

Such  a  revolution  attracts  the  attention  of  the  Powers  which 
were  "  signatory  "  to  the  Treaty  of  Berlin.  At  once  they  enter 
into  pour  parlers.  As  nearly  all  the  Ministers  then  resided 
upon  the  upper  waters  of  the  Bosporus,  either  at  Therapia  or 
Buyukdere,  I  notice  that  my  neighbors  are  in  a  flurry.  Their 
launches  fly  around  and  over  the  Strait,  under  an  extra  pressure 
of  steam.  Out  of  this  discord  in  the  Balkans  comes  the  "  Euro- 
pean concert  !  "  The  refrain  is  :  Shall  the  status  quo  ante  be 
restored?  This  is  a  phrase  to  signify  that  Prince  Alexander 
should  be  relegated  and  limited  to  his  own  dominions,  as  desig- 
nated by  the  treaty  of  Berlin. 

It  may  be  said  generally,  that  wars  always  come,  when  they 
come  at  all,  upon  frontiers.  It  is  here  that  there  is  found  the  close 
collision,  local  irritation  and  jealousy  of  dominion.  The  question 
arises:  Where  is  the  proper  border  within  which  the  Battenberg 
Prince  should  be  confined  ?  Shall  his  border  reach  below  the 
Balkan  range  ?  If  so,  in  case  the  Prince  be,  as  was  then  appre- 
hended, in  concert  with  Russia — would  not  the  taking  of  East 
Roumelia  enable  Russia,  through  her  Slavonic  influence  and  her 
ecclesiastical  polity,  to  overcome  that  old  historic  mountain  fron- 
tier which  bears,  among  its  lofty  honors,  such  names  as  Plevna 
and  Shumla  ?  A  good  map  shows  the  line  of  military  occupation 
at  that  time,  between  the  Turkish  and  Bulgarian  forces.  It  runs 
from  Adrianople  along  the  railroad  to  Phillipopolis. 

This  is  the  situation  as  it  appears  on  September  18,  a.  d.  1885: 
The  town  of  Moustafa-Pasha  is  the  centre  of  Turkish  opera- 
tions. There  troops  are  gathering  as  a  nucleus.  The  railroad  is 
not  interrupted  to  a  great  extent — a  dozen  English  miles,  perhaps. 
The  insurgent  forces  are  ranged  en  e'chelon,  between  Adrianople 
and  Phillipopolis,  on  the  railway.  They  have  some  artillery.  Of 
these  troops,  more  than  half  are  at  Khaskeim.  The  map 
will  show  how  near  the  contending  troops  are  to  each 
other. 

Turkey  is  acting  with  forbearance ;  as  well  because  her 
Mahometan  population  is  in  peril  among  hostile  people,  as 
because  of  the  insurrection.  She  is  conscious  of  being  in  the 
right;  and  is,  perhaps,  advised  thus  to  act  by  the  Powers  or  by  some 
of  them.     Perhaps  she  expects  the  rising  to  die  out  from  inani- 


ASTEROIDS  IN  THE  EASTERN  SKY.  639 

tion.  The  insurgents  are  spending  $125,000  a  day  in  the  expenses 
of  the  militia  and  volunteers.     Can  they  keep  this  up  very  long? 

With  this  question,  involving  the  breach  of  the  Berlin  treaty, 
arises  another  which  tends  to  help  the  Turk:  Roumania — another 
child  of  the  Berlin  treaty,  with  a  king — represents  by  her  Minis- 
ters, at  home  and  abroad,  that  the  contemplated  union  between 
East  Roumelia  and  Bulgaria  diminishes  Roumania's  importance 
as  the  accepted  leader  of  the  Danubian  provinces. 

Where  is  Greece  in  these  movements  ?  Are  Greece  and  her 
kindred  population  in  Macedonia  to  remain  under  Slav  domina- 
tion ?  There  is  a  "  cry  from  Macedonia;"  and  much  e.xcitement 
in  Athens  and  Albania. 

So  that  it  will  be  perceived  that  this  is  not  altogether  a  war  of 
religions,  nor  of  races.  It  is  an  endeavor,  rather,  to  increase  the 
local  importance  of  certain  '*  asteroids  "  in  the  Eastern  sky.  It 
is  my  belief  now,  that  the  Turkish  Army  could  temporarily  have 
settled  the  trouble,  if  it  had  not  been  that  the  Sultan  disliked  to 
use  force,  fearing  it  might  involve  a  general  war. 

There  are  other  relations  to  be  considered.  Bosnia  and 
Servia  are  occupied  by  Austria  under  the  conditions  of  the  Berlin 
treaty.  Servia  has  a  king,  Milan,  the  creature  of  Austria, 
Austria  desires  access  to  the  Mediterranean  at  Salonica,  through 
Turkish  provinces.  It  is  a  splendid  commercial  ambition.  The 
map  will  show  how  nearly  it  encroaches  on  Turkey — in  her  sus- 
ceptibility and  dignity,  as  well  as  in  her  rights  and  domain. 
Turkey  reserves  her  fire — if  war  comes — for  the  guardianship  of 
these  rights  and  domain.  In  this  emergency,  her  hereditary  foe, 
Greece,  may  be  her  ally;  or  may  not.  That  depends  on  the 
share  of  the  spoil. 

The  Eastern  question  relates  not  only  to  the  religious  creeds — 
Greek,  Armenian,  Mahometan,  Latin,  etg. — but  to  the  states 
wherein  Bulgarian,  Wallachian,  Greek,  Slav,  Roumanian,  Ser\'ian, 
Bosnian,  Herzegovian,  Montenegrin  and  Turk  have  been  mixed 
for  centuries  in  the  most  heterogeneous  manner,  with  flexible 
boundaries  and  changeful  domination.  As  to  this  question,  the 
great  Powers  are  in  perpetual  unrest,  despite  the  obligation  of 
treaties  and  the  conscience  of  mankind. 

The  signatory  Powers  hold  a  prompt  conference  at  the  house  of 
the  Italian  Minister,  Count  Corti.  He  lives  in  our  neighborhood 
at  Therapia.    He  is  the  6ean  of  the  Ministers,  by  longest  service; 


640  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

but  whether  any  conclusion  is  arrived  at,  it  is  impossible  to  ascer- 
tain. The  Ambassadors  are  reticent  as  to  their  action.  In  fact, 
they  are  awaiting  with  much  impatience — which  is  intensely 
shared  by  the  Sultan  and  his  Ministers  and  Army — the  reply  of 
the  Powers  to  the  Sultan's  circular  upon  the  situation. 

As  my  duty  calls  me  to  see  the  new  Foreign  Minister,  Said 
Pasha,  I  take  occasion  to  impress  him  with  our  own  friendly 
American  regard  in  the  present  unexpected  embarrassment.  As 
the  interests  of  America  depend  on  the  faith  of  the  treaties  or 
capitulations,  I  make  all  the  emphasis  possible,  consistent  with 
non-intervention,  about  the  disregard  of  the  Berlin  treaty  which 
these  events  display. 

These  events  happen  nine  years  after  the  Berlin  Congress 
concluded  its  labors.  Its  president.  Prince  Bismarck,  congratu- 
lated the  nations  on  the  lasting  quality  of  their  work.  Disraeli, 
on  his  return  to  London,  said,  "I  bring  peace  with  honor."  But 
how  long  is  this  pacific  work  to  last  ?  How  many  breaches  must 
be  made  before  that  treaty  is  utterly  riddled  ? 

What  is  the  tenor  of  this  treaty  ?  Its  first  article  provides  for 
an  autonomous  and  tributary  principality  for  Bulgaria.  Bulgaria 
was  to  have  "a  Christian  government  and  a  national  militia."  It 
was  to  contribute  to  the  Ottoman  revenue.  Nothing  of  the  revenue 
has  ever  been  paid  to  Turkey,  and  there  is  a  breach  on  the  part  of 
Bulgaria  in  that  regard.  Whether  she  has  an  autonomous  govern- 
ment, is  a  matter  which  these  concluding  chapters  will  elucidate. 
She  has  a  national  militia,  but  it  turns  out  to  be  rather  a  stand- 
ing army,  in  defiance  of  both  the  spirit  and  the  wording  of  the 
treaty. 

Its  second  article  provides  that  the  Sultan  shall  defend  the 
Balkan  frontiers  of  Eastern  Roumelia.  But  when  Eastern  Rou- 
melia  joins  with  Bulgaria,  is  not  the  treaty  defied  ?  Does  it  not 
radically  change  the  relation  of  that  region  ?  Where  is  the 
defensible  frontier  against  Russia  held  by  Turkey,  if  Eastern 
Roumelia  becomes  a  part  of  Bulgaria;  and  where  is  Russia  in  her 
attitude  toward  Turkey  in  case  Russia  holds  Bulgaria? 

Article  ten  provides  for  the  completion  and  connection  of  cer- 
tain railways  through  Servia  to  Constantinople  and  Salonica.  The 
Varna-Rustchuk  line  being  already  in  working  order,  Bulgaria 
has  no  difficulty  on  that  score.  But,  as  we  have  seen  in  chapter 
XLVI.,  other  railways  are  yet  in  embryo,  or  in  progress. 


NOTES  OF  PREPARATION  FOR  WAR.  64 1 

Article  second  provides  that  the  local  government  should 
demolish  and  raze  the  old  fortresses  within  one  year,  or  sooner,  if 
possible,  and  that  they  should  not  be  allowed  to  construct  fresh 
ones.  This  has  not  been  done;  hence  another  breach  of  the 
treaty. 

Article  seventeen  declares  that  the  Governor-General  of  East- 
ern Roumelia  should  be  named  by  the  Porte,  with  the  assent  of 
the  Powers,  for  the  term  of  five  years.  Twice  in  eight  years  has 
this  article  been  violated.  Bulgaria,  by  absorbing  Eastern  Rou- 
melia, violates  its  own  organic  law,  which  affixed  the  boundaries 
of  Bulgaria. 

Article  thirty-three  concerns  Montenegro,  and  article  forty-two 
Servia.  They  were  to  pay  a  portion  of  the  Ottoman  debt.  This 
has  never  been  done.  But  the  monetary  consideration  is  nothing 
in  comparison  with  the  reckless  disregard  of  the  provisions  of  this 
much  vaunted  treaty.  It  is  likely  to  be  torn  to  atoms,  and  con- 
sumed in  some  general  conflagration,  by  the  Powers  which  con- 
certed its  celebration. 

Already  the  first  sounds  of  the  conflict  are  heard  all  through 
the  Balkan  peninsula.  A  thousand  memories  of  past  terrible  con- 
flicts are  awakened.  Europe  stands  tip-toe,  eager  to  catch  every 
note  of  preparation.  Even  from  far-off  America  telegrams  are 
sent  to  me,  as  to  the  probable  outcome  of  these  events.  Is  it 
war — or  peace  ?  The  markets  of  New  York  sympathize  with  the 
Bourse  of  Paris,  the  Borse  of  Berlin  and  the  Exchange  of 
London. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

BALKAN   PENINSULA  ;    ROUMANIA  ;   SERVIA  ;    PREPARATIONS  FOR 
fighting;  GREECE — ITS  KING  AND  QUEEN. 

The  plains  below  the  Balkans  are  not  unlike  Belgium  in  one 
respect.  They  have  been  called  the  bloodiest  cock-pit  of 
Europe.  The  beautiful  valley  of  the  Maritza — the  ancient  Heb- 
rus — has  been  deluged  with  blood.  From  the  earliest  days  of 
ancient  Thrace,  when  Philip  and  Alexander  subdued  its  tribes,  or 
from  the  time  the  Romans,  under  Trajan  and  Adrian,  made  their 
conquests,  even  up  to  and  beyond  the  Danube,  down  to  the  time 
when  the  Bulgarians  laid  the  foundation  of  a  kingdom  upon  the 
worn  out  empire  of  the  Romans — wars  have  been  the  rule,  and 
peace  the  exception.  Since  that  time.  Christian  and  Turk, 
through  many  centuries,  have  had  here  many  bitter  and  fanatical 
conflicts.  Looking  at  the  battles  of  Shipka  and  Plevna,  we  find  in 
them  a  repetition  of  former  contests  at  old  points  of  strategy. 
In  these  conflicts  the  Danubian  principalities  have  always  figured. 
Their  people  gained  independence  by  their  own  courage.  Strictly 
speaking,  Roumania  is  not  a  Balkan  provmce;  and  just  now  she 
is  aloof  from  its  entanglements  and  trials. 

The  capital  of  Roumania  is  Bucharest.  It  deserves  special 
mention.  It  is  iiot  merely  the  capital  of  an  interesting  kingdom, 
but  it  has  the  fine  touch  and  color  of  Western  civilization.  It 
is  half  Orient  and  half  Occident.  You  may  see  the  Turk  there, 
and  yet  you  are  away  from  the  Turk.  The  Roumanians  are 
by  no  means  home-bodies.  They  travel  a  good  deal.  They 
return  with  the  customs  and  costumes  of  the  French  capital. 
They  are  fond  of  music  and  shows.  Nothing  please?  them  more 
than  a  theatre,  unless  it  be  a  circus.  They  love  the  latter  with 
the  affection  of  the  old  Romans,  of  which  they  esteem  them- 
selves to  be  the  legitimate  heirs.  I  noticed  their  fine  horses,  and 
the  rattling  pace  with  which  the  Jehus  drive.  They  are  unexam- 
pled for  the  gayety  of  their  equipages. 


A  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  THE  PES'INSULA.  643 

Roumania  played  a  chivalric  part  in  the  war  by  which  she 
was  freed  and  organized.  She  was  carved  out  of  Turkey  by  the 
union  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia.  The  treaty  of  Berlin  called 
her  into  being  as  a  state  whose  suzerain  was  the  Sultan.  Some 
tribute  was  to  be  paid,  but  it  has  not  been  paid.  She  sits  at  the 
foot  of  the  Carpathians  with  her  King  and  Queen,  with  all  the 
felicities  of  her  autonomy,  as  ready  for  the  arts  of  peace  as  the 
honors  of  war. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  Roumania  is  interesting.  The 
houses  of  her  capital,  although  never  more  than  one  or  two  stories, 
are  shapely  and  elegant.  Her  streets  are  well  paved  and  cleanly, 
and  the  people  are  penetrated  with  the  old  Roman  esprit.  Many 
interesting  ruins  show  that  Roumania  was  a  prominent  Roman 
province  at  an  early  date.  The  relics  of  her  greatness  still  remain 
in  the  character,  gallantry  and  pride  of  her  citizens. 

If  the  reader  would  know  something  about  Turkey  in  Europe, 
and  how  much  even  recent  wars  have  limited  its  domain,  let  him 
turn  to  a  map  and  glance  at  the  country  between  the  Black  Sea, 
the  yEgean,  the  Adriatic  and  under  the  Balkans.  Or,  let  him  stand 
in  the  south  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  on  classic  Mount  Olympus,  or 
its  neighbor  Ossa,  and  observe,  in  fancy,  old  Thessalonica  and  the 
beautiful  city  of  Janina,  with  its  mountain  lake;  or  stand  u|X)n 
Pindus  and  survey  the  lands  of  the  Eastern  Adriatic,  or  look  dou*n 
from  the  Black  Mountain  on  Montenegro,  or  glance  at  the  distant 
snow-covered  mountains  of  Herzegovina  ;  or  let  him  traverse  the 
rugged  country  around  Sophia,  or  take  the  railroad  from  Phil- 
lipopolis  through  Adrianople  to  the  Bosporus — he  will  observe 
that  Its  scenery  and  cultivation  have  not  improved  by  any  meas- 
ure of  self-government  or  of  relief  from  the  Ottoman  rule. 

This  land  was  once  in  better  trim  and  culture  than  it  is  at 
present.  It  is  now  almost  a  treeless,  fenceless  and  arid  waste. 
There  are  portions  of  it  capable  of  being  redeemed.  Much  of  it 
in  the  valleys  at  the  foot  of  the  Balkans  is  already  redeemed  in  a 
most  attractive  way.  I  do  not  mean  that  its  redemption  came 
through  glorious  war,  or  from  the  influence  of  tne  fortresses  of  the 
Oriental  quadrilateral  amid  the  mountains  of  the  Balkans. 

Let  the  reader  follow  the  Russian  army,  as  it  passed  in  1878, 
not  without  struggle,  over  the  Balkans,  driving  l>efore  it  the 
Turkish  armies.  Although  the  paths  which  he  may  follow  over 
these  mountains  and  vales  are  Alpine,  yet  he  will  soon  come  upon 


644  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

a  plain  where  for  miles  the  atmosphere  is  lovely  with  roseate  tints; 
for  is  not  this  the  land  of  Eskizagra,  where  the  sweetest  roses  of 
the  earth  bloom  in  prodigality,  and  the  precious  attar  is  manu- 
factured in  its  purity  ? 

This  country  under  the  Balkans  is  so  beautiful,  and  at  the  same 
time  so  fruitful,  that  it  is  called  the  "Basin  of  Roses."  It  is  in 
the  Kasenlyk  district.  Its  Turkish  name  is  Ghyulteknasy  and  its 
chirography  in  Turkish  looks  like  our  shorthand  caligraphy.  It 
has  a  poetic  significance  deeper  than  the  typography.  The  dis- 
tillation of  the  rose  in  the  Sanjak  of  Phillipopolis  is  immensely 
productive,  but  it  depends,  like  all  other  crops,  upon  a  state  of 
peace. 

The  word  attar,  or  otar,  in  the  Turkish  tongue  means  per- 
fume; but  there  can  be  no  bloom  or  perfume  upon  the  rose  when 
the  thieving  Cossacks  are  around,  or  the  bugles  of  war  are  re- 
sounding in  the  vales.  This  paradise  has  not  been  spared.  Per- 
haps some  of  the  color  of  the  rich  red  rose  may  remind  the  reader 
of  those  realms  of  which  Tom  Moore  sang,  and  of  which  Cash- 
mere, in  the  still  farther  Orient,  at  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas,  is 
another  and  lovely  example. 

The  southern  base  of  the  Balkan  range  does  not  depend  on  the 
attar  of  roses  altogether  for  its  fragrance  or  its  prosperity.  It  has 
an  exuberance  of  vegetation  and  production,  as  all  Piedmontese 
countries  have.  It  is  redolent  and  rich  in  the  jasmine  and  the 
wall-lilac,  and  in  vineyards  iind  forests  of  fruit  trees.  These  give 
to  the  plains  a  fragrance  and  beauty  only  equal  to  that  which 
blooms  in  and  is  distilled  from  its  roses.  Is  this  fair  land  to  be 
the  sanguinary  battle-ground  of  the  dynasties  ? 

Since  there  has  been  so  much  said  and  printed  in  relation  ta 
the  Balkan  peninsula,  and  the  collisions  growing  out  of  the  ambi- 
tions of  its  various  provinces,  it  is  as  well  to  correct — as  I  have 
endeavored  to  do — the  apocryphal,  exaggerated  and  misleading 
views  which  have  been  entertained  about  this  arena  of  conflict. 

After  the  events  which  have  been  narrated,  there  were  vari- 
ous meetings  of  the  Signa^^ory  Powers  at  the  house  of  the  Italian 
Ambassador.  Out  of  these  meetings  there  was  formulated  a 
note.  It  maintained  the  Berlin  treaty,  which  had  been  flagrantly 
and  unexpectedly  violated  by  the  action  of  Prince  Alexander. 
This  note  was  understood  as  allowing  the  Sultan  to  carry  out, 
without  any  intervention  or  obstacle  from  the  Signatory  Powers, 


SLAV  JEALOUSY  OF  BULGARIA.  645 

his  authority  over  East  Roumelia,  under  the  Berlin  treaty.  It  was 
hoped,  however,  that  no  breach  of  the  peace,  and  no  bloodshed, 
would  result.  Whether  Turkey  was  or  was  not  ready  to  take  the 
initiative  thus  accorded  her  by  these  then  neutial  Powers,  by 
using  force  over  her  Balkan  dependency,  had  not  then  been  ascer- 
tained absolutely. 

What  is  known  is  that  which  all  who  were  near  saw:  recruits 
and  conscripts  from  all  parts  of  the  empire,  and  soldiers  and 
munitions  from  the  capital,  moving  with  expedition  to  the  border. 
Intense  activity  is  seen  in  all  departments  of  the  Ottoman  govern- 
ment. At  any  moment,  a  spark  may  enkindle  a  blaze  which 
Avill  involve  the  whole  peninsula,  reaching  unto  the  Adriatic  in 
its  consequences,  including  Greece,  and,  in  fact,  engrossing  all  the 
warlike  courage  and  resources  of  the  countries  whose  fate  is 
affected  by  the  Berlin  treaty. 

The  position  of  Russia  is  constantly  referred  to  as  equivocal. 
Russia,  as  the  sot  disant  guardian  of  the  Bulgar  or  Slav — for 
reasons  which  are  apparent  in  this  narrative — dislikes  the  mode 
adopted  by  Prince  Alexander;  but  why  should  she  dislike  the 
union  of  the  "two  Bulgarias  "  ?  Does  not  this  union  enhance 
her  greatness,  as  the  leader  of  the  Slavonic  race  ?  Does  it  not,  in 
fact,  macadamize  her  road  to  Constantinople? 

It  is  rumored,  and  it  is  a  priori  probable,  that  Servia  and  the 
other  small  Powers  affected,  are  ready  to  aid  Turkey  in  the  con- 
test for  the  integrity  of  the  Berlin  treaty.  It  is  apparent  that 
Greece  especially,  is  madly  Jealous  of  the  growth  of  the  Slav  ele- 
ment. An  immense  public  assemblage  to  demonstrate  this 
object  is  expected  on  Sunday,  the  i8th  of  October,  a.  d.  1885, at 
its  capital,  Athens.  Even  Austria  is  regarded  as  jealous  of  Slav 
encroachment.  There  is  jealousy  everywhere  in  relation  to  this 
Bulgarian  emeute.  Each  one  of  the  Powers  interested  desires  to 
have  some  word  in  the  matter,  or  share  in  the  partition  of  Turkey, 
if  any  is  to  be  made.  Servia  seems  to  be  the  most  ravenous.  She 
bases  her  demand  on  her  ancient  dignity,  when  indeed  she  was  a 
Power  of  imperial  magnitude. 

The  position  of  Great  Britain  I  cannot  exactly  understand. 
Her  Premier,  Lord  Salisbury,  has  just  spoken,  upon  the  hustings, 
rather  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  status  quo.  He  seems  to  oppose 
the  disturbance  of  the  union  of  the  Bulgarias.  In  Constantinople 
it  is  understood  that  all  the  Powers,  including  Great  Britain,  are 


646  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

to  unite  upon  a  proposition  for  the  status  quo.  Great  Britain  is  rep- 
resented in  Constantinople  by  Sir  Henry  Drummond  Wolff,  but 
he  is  intent  only  on  Egyptian  matters.  She  must  be  either 
friendly  to  Turkey  and  join  the  Powers  in  their  efforts,  or  fail  in 
her  diplomacy  as  to  Egypt.  Her  position  is  not  without  embar- 
rassment and  ambiguity.  Besides,  England  has  a  memory  of  the 
Crimean  War'  and  its  unsatisfactory  conclusion.  That  war  cost 
England  twenty-four  thousand  lives;  and,  reduced  to  dollars, 
about  two  hundred  millions.  Along  with  her  allies,  England  suc- 
ceeded in  crippling  Russia  temporarily.  Turkey  was  restored  to 
many  of  her  privileges.  Certainly,  the  allies  received  from 
Turkey  many  promises  and  some  performances  as  to  justice  and 
reform.  Still,  England  has  posed  as  the  friend  of  liberty  in  the 
provinces;  and  now  that  a  Battenberg — connected  with  Queen 
Victoria — is  aggrandizing  himself  and  family  in  the  Balkans, 
is  it  for  England  to  oppose  the  union  of  the  Bulgarias  ?  We 
will  see. 

For  some  days,  the  telegraph  froiji  Adrianople  has  been  cut. 
Much  excitement  and  gloom  exist  in  government  circles  at  the 
indefinite  nature  of  the  news.  On  the  i6th  of  October,  a.  d.  1885, 
His  Excellency  Said  Pasha,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  makes 
his  calls  of  courtesy.  He  honors  our  Legation  at  Therapia. 
He  expresses  himself  as  more  cheerful  over  the  situation  than  he 
has  been  hitherto.  He  more  than  intimates  that  the  action  of  the 
six  Powers  has  aided  to  dispel  the  gloom  and  brighten  the  hopes 
of  peace  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  status  quo  ante  bellum. 

It  is  understood  that  a  deputation  from  the  Prince,  or  from 
the  Bulgarians,  has  visited  the  Czar  at  Copenhagen,  so  as,  if  pos- 
sible, to  have  his  good-will,  which  is  that  of  Russia,  in  the  con- 
troversy. The  treatment  of  the  deputation  by  the  Czar  is  reported 
in  various  ways.  It  seems,  however,  that  Russia,  by  its  Minister, 
M.  Nellidoff,  in  Constantinople,  is  acting  with  the  other  Signa- 
tory Powers.  The  best  impression  here  is  that  war  will  be  averted, 
owing  to  the  stand  taken  by  the  six  Powers. 

In  the  early  days,  when  Turkey  rose  potentially  in  the  East, 
France  seemed  to  be  most  dominant.  In  fact,  the  French  lan- 
guage is  the  prevailing  language  yet,  outside  of  the  languages  of 
the  country.  "  Capitulations "  from  the  early  Sultans  to  the 
French,  fixed  the  status  of  the  Ctiristian  world  with  respect  to  the 
Orient.     But,  for  reasons  not  requiring  dilation,  the  French  have 


ANXIETIES  ABOUT  THE  AMERICAN  COLLEGE.      647 

not  retained  their  old  standing  in  the  East,  when  Napoleon  the 
Great  was  represented  here  by  Sebastiani. 

As  the  controversy  appears,  about  the  last  of  October,  a.  d. 
1885  :  the  Prince  has  given  his  complete  submission  to  the  Pow- 
ers,  and  has  left  Phillipopolis.  Again,  it  is  said  that  he  is  only 
gone  to  inspect  certain  portions  of  the  interior  of  East  Roumelia, 
and  will  soon  return  to  Sophia  to  preside  over  a  council  of  Min- 
isters; and  again  that  he  will  withdraw  his  army,  ujxjn  a  prom- 
ise given  him  to  sanction  some  assimilation  of  the  mstitutions  of 
East  Roumelia  and  Bulgaria. 

As  I  had  prophesied  in  my  despatches  home,  trade  is  ham- 
pered. Even  America  is  to  be  affected  by  these  semi-belligerent 
conditions.  The  Bulgarian  authorities,  for  the  second  time,  pro- 
hibit the  export  of  maize  and  wheat  from  Bourgas,  an  East 
Roumelian  port.  The  Powers  protest.  We  have  no  protest  to 
make,  as  to  any  restriction  which  tends  to  enlarge  our  own  grain 
market.  In  fact,  we  have  nothing  at  all  to  do  or  say  in  these 
matters.     For  the  present,  it  is  ours  to  observe. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  complication  I  wrote  a  despatch  to  my 
government  that  I  feared  the  American  (Robert)  College,  most 
of  whose  students  are  Bulgars,  might  be  embarrassed  in  conse- 
quence of  the  nationality  of  these  students;  and  especially  so  in 
case  the  students  should  leave,  or  endeavor  to  leave,  for  their 
homes  to  take  part  in  the  insurrection.  This  fear  was  founded 
on  the  fact  that  Dr.  Washburn,  the  President,  had  just  returned 
from  a  tour  through  Bulgaria.  There  he  had  received  a  trium- 
phal reception  from  his  former  pupils. 

I  called  at  the  College  and  saw  Dr.  Washburn.  He  said  that 
but  one  Bulgarian  student  had  left,  and  that  he  had  returned. 
The  College  was  full.  There  were  nearly  two  hundred  students. 
Their  good  conduct  was  admirable.     I  ask  the  President: 

"What  is  your  judgment  as  to  these  recent  events."  He 
replies: 

"  I  believe  that  the  uprising  is  s|X)ntaneous  with  the  j^eoplc 
of  the  two  provinces.  It  is  a  surprise  to  all  the  Powers.  It  is  such 
a  surprise  that  Russia  suspects  Austria,  and  Austria  suspects 
Russia.  Even  the  Russian  Ambassador,  M.  Nellidoff,  was 
puzzled  at  first.  As  Russia  sometimes  works  in  these  provinces 
in  a  mysterious  way,  and  without  the  knowledge  of  her  own  Min- 
ister— his  protestations,  like  those  of  Austria,  are  sincere." 


648  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

"  But,  Doctor,  what  of  Germany;  what  of  the  Chancellor  ?" 

"  I  understand,"  he  rejoins,  "that  the  astute  Chancellor  is 
not  unwilling  to  see  Austria  and  Russia  divide  up  the  Balkans  and 
other  parts  of  Turkey  in  Europe,  and  thus  close  up  these  ever- 
recurring  controversies." 

"  But  what  Power  will  get  Constantinople?  Who  will  allow 
Russia  to  control  these  splendid  commercial  waters?" 

This  is  not,  as  he  confesses,  so  easily  answered.  He  can 
only  say: 

"  That  is  a  puzzle  !  " 

*'  Besides,"  I  presume  to  add,  "  Turkey  is  not  now  a  '  sick  man.' 
Turkey  generally  lacks  money;  but  then  her  tithes  are  now  com- 
ing in,  and  a  loan  of  over  three  millions  of  dollars  is  being  made 
upon  certain  chartered  railway  guarantees  in  Asia.  Her  soldiers 
care  little  for  their  pay,  so  that  they  are  v/ell  housed,  fed  and 
clothed.  Besides,  is  not  the  Sultan  the  Chief  of  Islam,  at  the 
head  of  two  hundred  millions  of  Mahometans  in  Asia,  Africa  and 
the  isles  ?  Is  she  to  be  despised  where  the  Faithful  pray  toward 
Mecca,  either  by  Russia  in  Asia;  or  by  England  in  Asia  and 
Africa ;  or  by  Germany,  Spain,  England,  Portugal,  Belgium, 
France  or  Italy — in  Europe  or  Africa;  or  by  any  or  all  of  the 
Powers  which  are  moving  over  the  earth  and  seas,  seeking  what 
remote  realms  they  may — rescue  from  barbarism  ?' ' 

The  part  which  Germany  may  play  in  this  drama,  it  is  difficult 
to  foretell.  Her  Minister  is  highly  honored  by  the  Sultan.  Ger- 
mans here  are  supplanting  the  English  and  other  nationalities  in 
the  service  of  the  Porte.  The  new  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Said  Pasha,  has  recently  been  Mmister  at  Berlin,  and  was,  before 
he  left,  decorated  by  the  Emperor  of  Germany  and  honored  by 
Chancellor  Bismarck,  Germany,  in  fact,  has  the  sword  of  Bren- 
nus.  Will  she  throw  it  into  the  doubtful  scale?  I  presume,  from 
her  reserve,  that  she  favors  the  status  quo  ante  belltivi,  and  then 
a  conference.     Time  will  show. 

It  is  generally  believed  that,  at  the  meeting  of  the  three 
Emperors  at  Cremsier,  this  insurrection  was  arranged.  '  As  each 
of  the  Powers — whatever  their  secret  wish  or  bias  might  have 
been — disclaimed  any  part  in  the  uprising,  so  each  of  them 
seems  to  be  horrified  at  the  audacious  breach  of  the  Berlm 
treaty;  and  all,  unless  now  we  except  Great  Britain,  pretend  to 
desire  the  status  quo  ante  bellum.    If  so,  why  are  they  so  slow  to 


SITUATION  BEFORE  THE  SERVIAN  H.:.:.  v.^^ 

compel  the  amende  to  Turkey  ?  Delay  works  in  two  ways:  it 
helps,  at  one  view,  to  establish  the  union  of  the  provinces;  and  in 
another,  it  costs  the  Bulgarians  immensely  for  troops,  munitions 
and  provisions.  The  impatient  Bulgar  expects  ready  sympathy 
and  aid  from  the  Powers,  especially  Russia.  He  is  already  dis- 
couraged. Time  is  dispiriting  the  people  of  the  two  provinces 
and  disintegrating  their  forces.  The  exchequer  of  the  Prince  is 
not  large,  and  results  have  not  been  realized.  The  volunteers  of 
Bulgaria  are  said  to  be  hiding  in  the  mountains,  and  many  are  on 
half  rations;  while  many  more  are  fearful  of  a  Servian  as  well  as 
of  a  Turkish  attack. 

Events  are  likely  soon  to  produce  a  new  settlement  of  the 
Balkan  question.  The  conditions  may  differ  from  those  of  the 
Berlin  treaty.  This  result,  it  seems,  the  Porte  is  willing  to 
hazard;  for  the  Porte,  as  I  hear,  has  sent  to  its  representa- 
tives accredited  to  the  great  Powers,  a  circular  proposing  a  con- 
ference of  Ambassadors  in  Constantinople,  to  settle  definitely  the 
Roumelian  question;  to  consider  that  question  only. 

The  situation  before  the  Servian  attack  on  Bulgaria  is  nearly 
this:  the  three  great  Powers — Austria,  Russia  and  Germany — are 
agreed;  England  hesitates;  France  and  Italy  are  reluctant,  but 
are  supposed  to  be  in  accord  about  the  conference.  The  Porte 
desires  to  prevent  bloodshed,  but  insists  upon  the  Berlin  treaty 
being  preserved  in  its  entirety  and  in  good  faith.  The  Porte  does 
not  fear  Bulgaria  so  much  as  Servia  and  Greece.  It  would  be  a 
great  relief  to  the  Powers  and  people — who  are  apprehensive  of  a 
great  war,  involving  every  race  and  nation,  from  the  Adriatic  to 
the  Black  Sea — should  these  apprehensions  be  allayed. 

The  Ambassadors  of  the  six  Powers  had  several  meetings.  It 
would  seem,  from  this,  that  nothing  had  been  concluded  abso- 
lutely. Several  days  ago  they  met  to  discuss  the  reply  of  the 
Porte  to  the  so-called  "  Identic  note  "  of  the  Powers.  It  is  said, 
and  truly,  that  they  are  still  united  u|X)n  the  Berlin  treaty,  and 
the  rights  of  the  Sultan  under  it.  A  further  conference  is  called 
to  settle  what  seems  to  have  been  already  agreed  upon. 

These  vicissitudes,  with  their  rumors  and  apprehensions,  indi- 
cate to  the  reader  who  is  unacquainted  with  the  Eastern  question 
and  the  modes  for  its  settlement  or  suppression,  one  of  the  Diver- 
sions of  an  American  Minister  at  the  Porte,  whose  anxiety,  if  he 
indulges  in  any,  is  that  freedom  should  prevail,  and  that  his  own 


650  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  OMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

country,  if  war  comes,  may  not  be  harmed,  but  helped,  in  the 
controversy. 

Meanwhile,  arming  and  mobilization  go  on,  Servia  has 
100,000  men  ready.  Her  whole  population  is  only  1,865,000. 
She  is  eager  for  a  fray,  either  with  Bulgaria,  or  any  Power  which 
presumes  to  lead  the  Balkan  peninsula,  or  grow  in  domain  or 
power  without  her  consent  or  her  own  aggrandizement  !  Russia 
has  80,000  troops  in  Bessarabia,  on  the  Roumanian  frontier;  and 
still  her  battalions  come  !  Servia,  however,  is  giving  Bulgaria 
more  apprehension  than  she  gives  Turkey.  Greece  is  having  an 
excitement  worthy  of  her  early  historic  and  rhetorical  activity 
upon  these  shores;  but  she  has  not  yet,  owing  to  restraining  influ- 
ences outside,  broken  from  her  moorings.  Servia  is  about  to 
launch  herself  upon  "a  sea  of  trouble." 

A  modern  Turk  may  not  imitate  his  ancestry  so  far  as  energy 
is  concerned.  He  may  temporize.  He  says:  "  I  will  do  nothing 
to-day;  to-morrow,  Bacaloum,  we  shall  see."  And  yet,  he  is 
wary  as  well  as  patient.  He  is  gathering  upon  the  frontier  for  this 
emergency  a  fine  army,  well  ordered  and  equipped.  He  has 
already  there  40,000  good,  trained  soldiers,  and  cannon  of  the 
best  make.  His  notes  trumpet  along  the  Bosporus  with  no 
uncertain  sound,  from  morning  till  evening.  His  conscripts  are 
coming  into  the  city  by  the  thousand.  Drilling  goes  on  every 
hour  upon  the  barrack-grounds  and  on  the  shores  of  the  Straits. 
Many  of  his  soldiers  are  going  to  Salonica,  as  if  the  point  of 
danger  were  in  Macedonia.  The  Austrian  Lloyd  Company  is 
employed  continually  in  carrying  troops  to  that  important  point. 
Turkish  vessels  are  constantly  passing  up  and  down  the  Straits, 
or  coming  in  from  the  Black  Sea,  or  from  Syria,  loaded  with 
troops.  The  vessels  have  a  roseate  tinge,  from  the  multitude 
of  red  fez  caps  which  crowd  their  decks. 

These  grand,  movements  indicate  a  question  more  important 
than  Prince  Ale;;ander  and  his  insurrection.  The  greater  ques- 
tion is  one  which  neither  diplomacy,  treaty  nor  arms  can  readily 
reconcile  or  settle.  In  its  most  comprehensive  expression,  it  is  a 
question  of  race  and  nationality.     It  is  : 

"Shall  this  or  that  race  dominate  within  certain  natural  or 
artificial  boundaries  ?  " 

There  is  much  uncertainty  as  to  these  Balkan  races  and  their 
mixture  with  one  another.     Even  the  proud  Greek  strain  is  chal- 


TURK^  GREEK  OR  SLAV— WHICH ?  65  I 

lenged  as  being  more  or  less  Slav.  From  Herzegovina  to  the 
Dobrodcha,  from  the  Gulf  of  Corinth  to  the  Danube,  there  is  a 
strange  composite  of  many  races,  so  interchangeably  mixed  by 
blood,  tradition,  history,  war,  exodus  and  social  and  domestic 
relations  that  no  one  can  aver  where  one  race  begins  and  another 
ends,  or  which  dominates  in  any  one  locality. 

The  distinct  races  in  these  provinces  are  the  Gypsy,  Ottoman, 
Jew,  Slav  and  Greek.  They  appear  each  with  their  peculiar 
prejudices  and  traditions.  Neither  of  these  races  constitutes  dis- 
tinctively any  one  of  the  lesser  provincial  luminaries.  Neither 
of  these  shines  with  a  lustre  altogether  peculiar  to  itself,  or  with  a 
magnitude  great  enough  to  be  other  than  a  satellite  moving  around 
stars  of  superior  orbit  and  destiny. 

It  will  not  do  to  trust  to  the  ordinary  observer,  be  he  ever  so 
clever,  for  our  knowledge  of  the  political  situation  of  the  East,  and 
especially  in  the  Balkan  peninsula.  The  contradictory  reports  of 
the  outrages  of  Bulgaria,  and  the  number  of  people  who  were  mas- 
sacred there  some  years  ago,  should  lead  one  to  be  cautious.  The 
English  Minister,  Layard,  once  said,  "  The  Orient  is  given  to  men- 
dacity." It  will  not  do  to  trust  to  the  estimates  of  those  connected 
with  one  nationality,  who  may  be  partial  or  interested  in  covering 
the  facts.  As  well  seek  to  rely  upon  a  three  months*  visit  to  Turkey, 
with  the  time  spent  socially  among  its  hospitable  |>eople  at  the 
hotels  of  Pera  or  the  konaks  of  the  pashas,  for  the  mode  and  man- 
ner of  life  of  the  various  races  who  make  up  the  capital  of  Turkey. 
There  is  a  great  dearth  of  reliable  information  as  to  the  Orient, 
and  but  for  certain  volumes  like  that  edited  by  "  A  Consul's 
Daughter,"  who  had  two  decades  of  experience,  we  would  not  be 
able  to  do  justice  either  to  Greek,  Turk  or  Slav,  in  their  relations 
to  the  Porte  or  to  the  Oriental  problem. 

Before  any  one  can,  therefore,  arrange  the  dynasties  and 
boundaries  of  southeastern  Europe,  reliable  facts  are  indispen- 
sable. If  we  rely  upon  the  volumes  which  have  l)een  written 
about  Turkey  since  the  Russian  or  the  Crimean  war.  we  would 
suppose  that  the  Bulgarian  was  deeply  attached  to  Russia  as  her 
savior.  From  another  quarter,  since  the  hostility  developed  in 
Bulgaria  against  Russia,  we  would  think  that  the  Bulgarian  was 
attached  to  the  Porte.  For  many  years  of  this  perpetual  con- 
tention, with  very  little  reliance  upon  the  sources  of  information, 
and  especially  as  to  those  questions  into  which  religion  and  race 


652  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  7  AV  TURKEY. 

enter,  it  is  well  to  have  an  informant  who  has  had  personal 
observation. 

I  have  before  me  a  volume  on  the  "Balkan  Peninsula,"  by 
Emile  de  Laveleye.  He  is  a  voluminous  writer  on  economic  and 
social  questions,  a  member  of  all  the  academies  and  institutes,  a 
learned  linguist  and  a  worthy  gentleman.  His  book  is  introduced 
to  the  public  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  commends  M.  Laveleye  for 
his  prudence,  energy  and  ability,  and  who  regards  the  accomplished 
author  as  a  champion  of  "the  well-being,  tranquillity  and  liberty 
of  that  region  which  has  come  to  be  of  more  critical  importance 
than  ever,  to  the  interests  of  Europe."  It  must  be  remembered 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  is  a  Russophile.  He  is  by  no  means  kind  to 
the  Turk  ;  and  making  much  allowance  for  a  certain  classic  and 
sentimental  partiality  toward  the  Greek  and  Slav,  in  this  volume 
of  M.  Laveleye,  nevertheless,  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  tolerably 
fair  and  full  presentation  of  the  events  which  are  but  briefly  hinted 
at  in  these  concluding  chapters. 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  in  favor  of  a  confederation 
of  the  Balkan  states.  Such  a  confederation,  now  that  Turkey 
has  been  somewhat  eliminated  from  that  section  of  the  European 
world,  would  include  the  two  great  Christian  races  in  Turkey — 
the  Greek  and  the  Slav.  Can  these  two  bodies  sympathize  ?  If 
they  could  only  act  as  one,  they  would  be  stronger  ;  if  they  could 
have  a  Zolverein,  so  as  to  trade  with  each  other,  as  Germany 
had,  and  as  our  States  have,  it  would  be  to  their  advantage. 
It  would  enhance  their  strength  as  an  economic  and  political 
community.  But  the  Greek  is  not  a  Slav,  and  the  Slav  is  not 
a  Greek.  They  are  rivals.  The  Bulgarian  coup  d'etat  displayed 
that  relation  at  once.  There  is  to  be  no  regeneration  by  their 
joint  action,  under  the  Balkans.  It  would  take  a  heroic  man — 
somebody  greater  than  the  Battenberg,  or  any  other  princeling, 
to  solve,  in  this  light,  the  problem  of  Bulgaria  and  the  Balkans. 
The  Bulgarian  may  recognize  the  intellectual  eminence  of  the 
Greek,  but  the  ecclesiastical  independence  of  Bulgaria  shows  that 
when  it  comes  to  the  emotional  nature,  which  takes  hold  upon  the 
unseen  world,  the  Bulgarian  accepts  no  domineering  from  any 
quarter. 

Along  with  the  Bulgarian,  and  nearer  perhaps  than  the  Greeks 
imagine,  or  the  Powers  of  Europe  dream,  are  the  Servians,  Bos- 
niacs,  Montenegrins  and  other  Slavonic  races.    These  have  some 


WHAT  POWER  CAN  REPLACE  TURKEY f  6^  ^ 

Slavonic  links,  ethnologically  if  not  nationally.  They  have  a 
temperament  that  defies  control.  They  are  likely  to  act  together, 
as  they  have  acted.  But  between  them  and  the  Greek  there  is  a 
wide  chasm  which  no  diplomacy  can  bridge.  I  have  had  some 
opportunity  of  observing  the  Slav.  My  servant  Pedro  is  of  that 
race.  He  is  a  good  illustration  of  its  superstitious  weaknesses, 
stability  and  fidelity.  He  is,  like  his  kindred,  determined  and  inde- 
pendent. The  Greek  is  subtle,  impulsive,  and  egotistic.  'I'here  arc 
not  many  Greek  communities  north  of  the  classic  Olympus 
and  its  parallel  ;  and  the  Greeks  upon  the  Princes  Islands,  and  in 
the  insular  dependencies  of  Turkey,  are  but  few ,  comparatively,  in 
number.  They  are  not  disposed  to  be  revolutionary.  If  the  Greeks 
were  not  so  whimsical  ;  if  Greece,  since  a.  d.  1833,  had  not  had 
over  thirty-odd  ministerial  changes  to  illustrate  her  impulses  ; 
if  the  Russians  were  once  more  at  San  Stefano,  and  the  question 
came  before  the  great  tribunal  of  the  Powers  of  Europe,  who  hold 
the  destiny  of  three  continents  in  their  control,  as  to  what  Power 
should  have  Constantinople — what  country  could  they  name? 
England?  No.  Russia,  France,  Austria  and  Italy  would  all  pro- 
test! France?  No.  Her  day  in  the  East  is  past.  Italy?  She 
too  has  long  since  lost  her  domination  at  Galata,  or  at  the  other 
marts  of  her  ancient  commerce.  Austria  ?  She  has  too  much 
traffic  to  make  her  the  disinterested  ruler  at  its  great  centre.  But 
her  interests  are  most  tenacious,  because  those  of  trade.  Would 
it  be  Russia?  "Never,"  is  the  chorus  of  all  the  Powers. 
Might  it  not  become,  under  general  control,  a  free  port,  and  not 
be  left  in  the  hands  of  any  one  people  ?  Perhaps  then  all  the 
Powers  and  all  the  interests  would  be  harmonized.  The  interests 
centring  at  Belgrade  on  the  Danube,  at  Salonica  on  the  .-Fgean, 
and  at  Ragusa  on  the  Adriatic,  would  contribute,  along  with  the 
railroad  schemes,  when  completed  through  Asia  Minor  eastward 
to  India — to  elevate  Constantinople  into  her  early  commercial 
supremacy  and  imperial  magnificence. 

Ah,  there  is  Greece  !  Has  she  the  stamina  to  organize  her 
old  empire  ?  If  the  contest  shoukl  be  between  the  Slav  and  the 
Greek  alone,  the  Slav  being  assisted  by  Russia,  and  the  Greek 
by  the  Latin  races,  including  those  of  Germany  and  England,  the 
result— if  I  may  indulge  in  the  hest  a  priori  prophecy— would  l)e, 
if  these  were  the  only  alternatives,  that  Constantinople  would  l>e 
controlled  by  the  Greeks.     But  there  is  no  such  alternative. 


654  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

There  are  from  five  to  seven  millions  of  the  Greek  race  in 
Turkey.  They  are  a  buoyant  and  active  business  people;  and, 
notwithstanding  their  apparent  devotion  to  the  Sultan,  quite 
ready,  if  aided,  to  welcome  their  vaunted  palingenesis.  If  it 
depended  on  the  personal  qualities  of  the  king  of  Greece,  this 
result,  under  such  a  leader,  would  not  be  so  improbable.  But 
he  is  not  the  power  in  his  state.  Greece  is  a  monarchy,  tempered 
with  a  fickle  legislature  and  a  versatile  ministry. 

******* 

It  is  nothing  to  the  discredit  of  King  George  that  he  "  reigns, 
but  does  not  govern."  He  was  married  to  the  Princess  Olga,  a 
daughter  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine.  He  may,  therefore, 
have  a  bias  toward  Russia,  as  well  royally  as  ecclesiastically.  But 
the  queen  is  averse  to  the  intrigues  of  politics,  and  the  king  holds 
his  limited  state  with  a  steady  hand.  The  moving  spirit  of  all 
the  charities  of  Athens — the  queen — is  worshipped  by  the  Greek 
people.  Her  blue  eyes  and  brilliant  complexion  have  yet  to  be 
saddened  or  eclipsed  by  the  dark  shadow  of  the  Oriental  prob- 
lem. Her  husband,  whose  likeness  is  presented  along  with  that 
of  the  queen,  is  a  worthy  mate  of  an  estimable  woman. 

I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Queen  Olga,  but  only  in  a 
frame,  in  the  palace  at  Athens.  As  I  passed  through  the  ante- 
chamber to  meet  the  king,  I  doffed  my  hat  to  her  portrait,  instinc- 
tively, as  to  a  good  woman.  I  cannot  fail  to  recall  the  pleasure 
of  this  palatial  Diversion.  We  had  just  returned  from  Egypt,  and 
were  en  route  to  the  Bosporus.  We  were  "  busy  as  bees  when 
the  buckwheat  blows,"  finishing  our  investigation  of  the  Acrop- 
olis, and  from  its  elevation  making  a  survey  of  the  classic  mount- 
ains and  plains,  and  the  city,  which  had  grown  greatly  in  size  and 
elegance   since  we  saw  it  in  185 1. 

After  a  breakfast  with  Dr.  Schliemann  and  his  scholastic  wife, 
at  their  splendid  home,  from  which  we  had  retired  replete  with 
enthusiasm  and  archaeology,  we  follow  the  guidance  of  an  Ameri- 
can Hellenic  scholar,  who  had  been  making  studious  researches 
into  the  marvels  of  the  Acropolis.  We  are  forgetting  our  massive 
Egyptian  wonders,  as  well  as  the  warlike  enterprises  which  are  stir- 
ring the  very  stones  of  the  temples  of  the  Acropolis  into  classic 
rage  at  the  conduct  of  Bulgaria — when  we  are  summoned  to  an 
ovation  in  a  little  shanty  of  a  museum,  just  below  the  Temple 
of  Minerva.     And  for  what  ?     The  archaeologist  who  reads  this 


THE   KING   AND  QUEEN   OF  GREECE. 
65s 


Co  Dl  VERiilONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

P"ge  anticipates  me;  for  it  was  in  February,  1886,  and  there  had 
been  discovered  here  certain  rare  treasures  of  Archaic  art.  We 
had  seen  the  workmen,  with  pick  and  spade,  sweating  among  the 
i^^^r/j  between  the  Erechtheum  and  the  spot  where  the  bronze 
Athena  stood.  Many  attempts  had  been  made  before  to  burrow 
here,  below  the  rubbish  of  marble  and  stone.  They  had  failed; 
but  these  last  efforts  did  not  fail.  They  were  rewarded  by  a  col- 
lection of  pre-Phidian  statues  of  Parian  marble,  of  rare  inter- 
est and  peerless  loveliness.  One  of  these' had  glass  eyes;  others 
were  painted,  and  the  colors  preserved  in  the:r  primitive  lustre; 
some  are  colossal  in  proportion,  and  they  all  bespeak  an  antique 
age  of  art,  from  which  the  modern  world  were  long  expecting  opu- 
lent results.  These  art  treasures  were  rescued  in  three  hours  from 
their  graves.  They  are  ready  to  delight  a  great  circle  of  schol- 
ars and  artists.  It  is  the  especial  pride  and  glory  of  King  George 
that  he  has  been  summoned  to  brush  the  dust  of  ages  from  these 
sculptures,  preliminary  to  the — photograph. 

I  am  watching  this  photographing  process,  when  a  messenger 
appears  in  the  little  museum.  He  summons  me  to  the  palace. 
What  had  I  been  doing?  A  note  from  the  king's  secretary — 
signed  Botzarris — explains  the  hidden  inspiration  of  this  royal 
mandamus.  Our  Minister,  Mr.  Fearn,  is  reciprocating  his  pre- 
sentation to  the  Sultan,  I  leave  the  Archaic  statues  to  the  photog- 
rapher and  all  Acropolitan  associations  to  the  past — to  ariswer 
the  summons.  We  meet  on  the  threshold  a  descendant  of  the 
Botzarris  family,  who  inducts  us  within  the  palace.  We  re- 
ceive a  cordial  greeting  and  welcome,  and  spend  an  hour  in  the 
company  of  one  of  the  most  charming  and  elegant  gentlemen  whom 
it  is  possible  to  meet  abroad. 

It  would  be  a  matter  of  regret  if  he,  as  the  king,  should  be 
distracted  from  his  life  as  a  moderate  and  wise  ruler,  to  be 
launched  upon  the  stormy  waves  of  Eastern  conflict;  now,  at  this 
equinoctial  season,  as  wild  and  unruly  as  the  seas  which  lash  the 
isles  of  his  domain. 

Greece,  however,  will  not  be  called  to  lead  her  compatriots  in 

the  conflicts  of  the  East. 

« 

After  all,  surmise  and  ratiocination  are  vain.  We  come  to  the 
same  old  conclusion  as  that  of  the  past  century:  that  so  long  as 
no  two  Powers  agree  as  to  what  race,  system,  or  government  shall 
occupy   Constantinople — that  city  will  remain   most  content  with, 


GREECE  IN  THE  CONFLICT.  657 

her  present  possessors,  until  some  social  or  religious  cataclysm 
occurs,  to  change  the  tide  of  human  passion  and  the  ambition  of 
human  nature. 


CHAPTER  XLIX.' 

BULGARIA    AND    ITS   CAPITAL;     RUSSIA    IN    THE   CONFLICT. 

The  Bulgarians  are  of  the  Turanian  stock.  They  came  from 
the  Volga  in  the  fifth  century  and  mixed  with  the  Slavs,  with 
whom  they  coalesced.  They  besieged  Constantinople  in  a.  d. 
559.  Along  with  the  Slavs  they  became  such  a  Power  as  to  levy 
tribute  upon  Byzantium.  They  have  fought  with  the  Magyars  in 
the  north,  with  the  Greeks  in  the  south,  and  with  the  Turks  ever 
since  the  latter  crossed  into  Europe.  Ravaged  by  Tartars  and 
scourged  by  her  neighbors,  still,  Bulgaria  in  the  Middle  Ages  had 
so  far  advanced  that  she  had  a  refinement  of  civilization,  com- 
parable then  with  that  of  Germany,  Hungary,  France  and  Eng- 
land. 

The  language  of  Bulgaria  shows  its  Slav  relationship.  In 
fact,  before  it  was  corrupted  by  the  Turkish  conquest,  and  by 
admixture  with  the  other  Danubian  tongues,  it  was  a  pure, 
and,  therefore,  the  ecclesiastical,  medium  of  expression.  It  has  a 
literature,  although  it  is  limited  to  national  songs.  Since  Rob- 
ert College  has  aroused  its  dormant  intellect,  Bulgaria  has  been 
stiniulated  to  resume  her  elder  glory. 

With  all  the  relations  of  Church  and  state  associating  Bulgaria 
with  the  Greeks,  and  with  the  question  constantly  propounded 
through  the  centuries,  "  Will  you  be  Slav  or  Greek  ?  "  she  has 
refused  to  be  Hellenized,  just  as  to-day  she  is  ready  to  make 
armed  protest  against  being  Muscovized.  God  grant  that  she 
may  stand  fast  and  upright  in  the  light  of  that  dawning  liberty 
which  she  has  deserved  by  patience,  persistence  and  patriotism. 

The  Bulgarian  people  as  a  body  are  peasants.  Their  social 
order  should  dictate  their  political  character.  As  in  Norway, 
Kansas,  Switzerland  and  Texas,  the  rural  democracy  control; 
so  in  Bulgaria,  the  institutions  should  be  a  government  fitting 
the  simple  quality  of  the  people. 

The   attempt   to    create   Russian   dictation  by   army  officers 

658 


THE  BULGARIAN  CAPITAL. 


659 


failed.     The  attempt  to  shake  off  the  Liberal  Ministries  formed 
since    1880,    also   failed.      Leaders   like    Zankoff  and   Karave- 
loff  voiced  the  popular  opinion  for  some  years,  despite  a  coup 
d'etat  in  May,  1881,  two  years  after  the  Tirnova  constitution — 
which  failed  after  much  anxiety  among  the  people,  and  despotic 
rule  from  pro-Russian  conservatism.    Prince  Alexander  himself, 
irritated   beyond  expression  by  the  meddling  arrogance  of  the 
Russian  Generals,  Skobeleff  and  Kaulbars,  at  last  compelled  these 
generals  to  resign  from  the  Ministry  and  retire  from  the  country. 
Home  coalition   ministries   against   alien   domination   followed, 
until  at  last,  after  six  years  of  exasperations,  Bulgar-a  rose  to 
the  need  and  height  of  self-government.    At  last,  Karaveloff — 
accomplished    in   political    economy    and   learned    in   the    logic 
and  practice  of  statesmanship,  became  the  responsible  head  of 
the  sentiment,  "  Bulgaria  for  the  Bulgarians,"  and  of  the  surpris- 
ing revolt  of  September,  1885,  out  of  which  has  flowed  unnum- 
bered woes  and  a  glorious  prospect  of  relief  and   independence. 
The  scene  of  these  events  so  intimately  associated  with  the 
action  of  Turkey  was  at  Sophia.  It  is  the  capital  of  Bulgaria.  It  is 
a  city — having  a  population  of  fifty  thousand.     It  is  as  nearly  as 
possible    at   the   centre  of  the    Balkan    peninsula,    and    in  the 
southwest  corner  of  Bulgaria,  not  far  from  the  Servian  and  Rou- 
melian  frontier.     It  is  near  the  north  foot  of  the  Balkan  mount- 
ains, upon  a  little  stream  which  contributes  to  the  Asker,  which 
is  itself  a  tributary  of  the  Danube.     Sophia  is  on  the  highway 
between  Constantinople  and  Belgrade,  over  which,  for  thousands 
of  years,  many  armies — Greek,  Hungarian,  Slav  and  Turk — have 
moved.     It  is  situated  on  a  vast  plain,  cultivated  not  unlike  the 
Hungarian  and  Russian  prairies,  by  tillers  and  graziers,  who  live 
in  little  villages   or   hide  in   the   mountains,    having   no   farm- 
buildings  and  houses.     The  traveler,  as  he  winds  his  way  up  the 
mountains,  will  see  few  men,  but  many  women,  going  to  work. 
The  latter  wear  a  black  apron,  red  belt  and  a  long  white  tunic.     A 
red  handkerchief  decorates  the  frizzly  hair,  and  a  baby  slung  in 
a  bag  ornaments  the  back.     The  carts  and  ploughs  are  primitive, 
but  they  are  beautified  by  being  attached  to  cross-looking  buf- 
faloes. 

This  is  a  sample  of  the  land  which  has  been  uptorn  for  a  dozen 
centuries  by  the  ploughshare  of  war.  The  only  object  of  taste 
and  utility  to  be  seen  on  these  routes  to  the  Bulgfarian  capital,  is 


66o  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKEY. 

here  and  there  a  Turkish  fountain  shaded  by  a  magnificent  tree — 
"gracious  monuments,"  says  M,  de  Laveleye,  ''offering  their 
beneficent  waters  to  the  animals  and  people  thirsty  from  the  heat, 
and  to  the  Faithful  in  their  ablutions." 

Upon  ascending  to  the  summit  of  the  pass,  the  traveler  reaches 
the  elevated  table-land.  It  is  flat,  barren,  almost  grassless.  The 
prospect  is  brown  except  a  conspicuous  white  spot  in  the  centre 
of  the  plain.  That  is  Sophia.  It  is  situated  in  the  midst  of  a 
waterless  lake.  The  streets  of  the  city  are  narrow  and  crooked. 
The  houses  are  indifferent.  There  are  churches  and  mosques, 
baths  and  bazaars  and  other  relics — like  the  Khan — of  Oriental 
memory.  It  is  an  ecclesiastical  see,  both  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Chuiches.  It  was  founded  by  Justinian,  but  ever  since  a.  d.  1382, 
when  the  Turks  conquered  it,  the  city  has  been  held  under  many 
vicissitudes.  Not  the  least  interesting  of  these  are  the  more 
recent  events;  and  since  the  Berlin  treaty  gave  Bulgaria 
autonomy  and  a  prince.  The  outward  signs  of  these  blessings 
are  the  palace  and  the  parliament  house,  which  the  artist  has 
pictured  for  the  reader.  The  exciting  incidents  which  have 
inflamed  the  Powers  of  the  world,  have  occurred  here  on  this 
border,  where  Pirot  and  Slivnitza,  are  surrounded  by  a  martial 
halo. 

It  is  fashionable  for  Americans  to  praise  Russia.  The  sym- 
pathy of  our  country  with  Russia  was  strengthened  by  the  reforms 
projected  and  carried  out  under  Alexander  II.  It  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  the  present  Czar  sympathizes  with  these  reforms  or 
takes  much  pride  even  in  the  emancipation  of  the  '»serfs  accom- 
plished by  his  predecessor.  He  believes  in  the  policy  of  Nicholas. 
The  clergy  are  still  to  be  enfranchised,  instead  of  being  used  as 
they  are,  for  police  duty  and  other  than  spiritual  purposes.  If 
there  be  any  freedom  of  speech  or  of  the  press  in  Russia  ;  if  the 
corruption  of  the  courts  of  justice,  of  which  I  had  proof  in  my 
travels  through  that  country  nearly  ten  years  ago,  has  been  cor- 
rected ;  if  intelligence  has  been  awakened  by  education  ;  if  the 
fiscal  system  has  been  improved  ;  or  if  there  has  been  any 
progress  in  the  liberalities  of  politics,  domestic  or  foreign,  of  recent 
years — the  world  is  yet  to  know  it. 

It  will  not  do  to  dilate  upon  her  vast  landed  area,  as  the  proof 
of  her  strength  ;  for  the  larger  the  territory  the  more  difficult  to 
suppress  the  constantly  smoldering  revolution   which  threatens 


PARLIAMENT  BUILDING  AT  SOPHIA,   BtTLGARIA. 
66x 


662  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

the  life  of  the  system,  and  of  the  occupant  of  the  throne  himself. 
True,  the  Czar  is  the  father  of  his  people!  But  he  is  their 
despot  also.  He  is  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  and  three  millions  of 
subjects!  True  again,  that  he  has  his  immense  armies  in  Europe 
and  in  Asia.  But  the  money  wherewithal  to  pay  them  is  scarce,  and 
what  of  it  is  current  is  an  irredeemable  paper  currency.  We  in 
America  know  what  that  means.  It  is  worth  now  only  about  half 
its  face.  In  case  of  a  general  conflagration  in  Europe,  it  will  be 
worth  little  or  nothing. 

What,  then,  is  this  overshadowing  strength  of  Russia  ?  It  is 
the  compact  Slavonic  element  of  sixty  millions,  not  so  much  on 
the  boundaries  as  in  the  heart  of  the  empire.  It  is  moved  by  one 
sentiment,  and  this  sentiment  is  founded  on  the  superstitions, 
emotions  and  ceremonies  of  the  orthodox  Church. 

Russia  has  many  alien  nations  in  her  midst.  They  would  be 
her  weakness  rather  than  her  strength  in  an  emergency.  She 
may  for  a  time  intrigue  upon  the  Danube  and  be  allied  with  the 
French.  She  may  trample  upon  and  over  the  Balkans,  and  her 
Minister  may  dictate  terms  of  peace  in  Constantinople  ;  but 
unless  her  own  government  be  radically  reformed,  and  the  Slavonic 
element  in  the  Balkan  peninsula  be  more  closely  united  with  a 
similar  element  in  her  own  country,  her  Slavonic  enthusiasm  will 
end  in  vaf)or. 

Whether  or  not  Russia  has  pursued,  since  the  time  of  Peter  the 
Great,  the  movement  upon  Constantinople  with  as  much  vigor  as 
she  would  have  done  without  the  intervention  of  the  other  Powers, 
it  is  a  fact  that  her  greatest  sovereign, Catherine  II. — the  murderess 
of  her  husband,  and  of  Ivan,  the  presumptive  heir  to  the  throne — 
fixed  over  the  gates  of  Kherson  this  inscription  :  "  This  is  the 
road  to  Byzantium!  "  This  was  a  perfidious  violation  of  the 
treaty  of  Rustchuk,  signed  on  the  loth  day  of  July,  a.  d.  1774. 

Is  it  asked:  "  What  are  the  intentions  of  Russia  ?  Will  she  be 
content  with  the  effectual  closing  of  the  Straits,  so  as  to  give  her 
guarantees  of  their  inviolability  ?  Is  she  only  anxious  to  be  an 
ally  of  Turkey  for  its  security  ?  What  are  her  real  designs  ?  Has 
she  any  in  connection  with  the  partition  of  the  Ottoman  empire  ? " 

The  answer  may  be  found  in  the  conversation  of  the  greatest 
of  the  Czars,  Nicholas,  with  the  English  Ambassador  in  a.  d.  1853. 
After  coolly  offering  Egypt  to  England  for  her  acquiescence,  he 
desires  the  Danubian  principalities   for    himself.     He  disposes 


RUSSIA  AND  THE  *' SICK  MAN."  663 

also  of  Servia  and  Bulgaria  with  the  same  frosty  breath.  But  he 
takes  pains  to  forbid  the  reconstruction  of  the  Byzantine  empire, 
having  his  own  eye  upon  St.  Sophia.  Nor  would  he  make  out  of 
Turkey  little  republics,  asylums  for  the  Kossuths,  Mazzinis  and 
other  radicals  of  Europe.  '*  Rather  fight,"  is  his  remark,  "  as  long 
as  I  have  a  man  or  a  musket."  It  is  on  this  occasion  and  from 
this  Czar  that  the  expression  of  his  belief  creeps  unawares  upon  his 
caution  :  "  We  have  on  our  hands  a  sick  man,  and  he  may  sud- 
denly die  on  our  hands!  " 

Is  Russia  preparing  a  hospital  for  the  sick  man,  that  she  organ- 
izes new  railways  and  new  orthodox  convents — to  Russify  the  wild 
tribes  on  the  eastern  border  of  Turkey  in  Asia,  and  the  Christian 
youth  of  Armenia  ?  Has  she  in  view  no  secular  militance  along 
with  her  monastic  crusade  ?  What  is  her  motive  in  stirring  up 
bad  blood  and  revolt  by  the  means  adopted  by  her  Kaulbars, 
Zankoffs  and  others  in  the  Balkans  ?  What  means  the  Rustchuk 
rebellion  last  March — 1887  ?  Why  is  she  so  bitter  toward  the 
regency,  the  Sobranj^,  and  toward  every  prince  named  for  the 
succession,  except  her  own  creatures  ?  Has  not  the  regency 
carried  on  Bulgarian  affairs  without  anarchy  and  with  order,  firm- 
ness and  dignity  ?  Russia  has  been  called  the  Bear,  and  Bulgaria 
the  Hive.  The  bear,  in  trying  to  turn  over  the  hive  for  the  honey, 
finds  more  bees  than  honey,  and  bees  that  have  a  skill  in  piercing 
even  the  hide  of  a  bear. 

The  generalship  which  distinguished  Osman  Pasha  and  his 
officers  and  men  in  the  Russian  war  of  1877-78  has  never  been 
sufficiently  praised.  It  is  said  that  at  Shipka  Pass  the  contest 
was  unequal.  The  Turks  may  have  had  the  advantage  of  num- 
bers and  position.  At  Plevna,  where  fully  twenty  thousand  men 
died  fighting  on  the  vine-clad  hills  that  surround  the  town,  and 
sixty  thousand  were  wounded — the  contest  was  greatly  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  Turks  so  far  as  numbers  were  concerned. 
Whether  in  open  assault  or  artillery  duel,  attacking  or  repelling, 
the  Turks  under  Osman  Pasha  there  won  undying  fame.  In  this 
conflict,  just  north  of  the  Balkans,  and  on  which  depended  the 
taking  of  the  Balkans  itself,  and,  in  fact,  the  Uking  of  Con- 
stantinople— ninety  thousand  Russians  gathered  in  front  of 
the  Krishin  parapet,  and  fought  in  vain  to  overcome  it.  The 
assaults  were  commanded  by  the  best  generals  of  the  Rus- 
sian army.     The  Czar  himself  was  present     The  Grand  Duke 


664  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Nicholas  was  in  command.  Such  soldiers  as  Todleben,  King 
Charles  of  Roumania,  and  Skobeleff  were  in  command.  They 
were  assisted  by  such  officers  as  Gourko.  Nevertheless,  the  final 
assault,  upon  the  Emperor's  name-day,  with  a  terrific  bombard- 
ment of  four  days,  failed  to  conquer  the  Turk.  Only  starvation 
drove  him  from  his  entrenchment.  On  the  loth  of  December 
Plevna  fell.  It  fell  because  Osman  Pasha  found  his  provisions 
reduced,  but  it  was  no  tame  surrender.  He  massed  his  troops 
during  the  night,  pierced  the  Russian  lines  on  the  west,  and 
endeavored  to  escape  to  the  Balkans — a  hopeless  onslaught,  but 
it  had  all  the  fierceness  of  the  early  Turk,  for  it  was  like  a  whirl- 
wind. The  truth  is,  the  war  was  one  of  religious  fanaticism.  The 
Russian  knows  nothing  else  in  any  war  than  God  and  the  Czar. 
He  is  like  the  Turk,  who,  when  embattled,  recks  of  nothing  but 
Allah,  Mahomet  and  the  Caliph! 

The  war  did  not  end  at  once,  as  many  supposed  it  would.  A 
winter  campaign  followed,  pushing  into  spring.  During  its  con- 
tinuance, seven  hundred  thousand  Mahometans  abandoned  their 
possessions;  most  of  them,  as  refugees,  sought  a  new  Asiatic 
home.  Three  hundred  thousand  Bulgarians  also  left  their  homes 
when  the  reflux  wave  of  Gourko's  retreat  took  place  in  July. 

When  this  war  is  renewed,  the  Balkans  will  not  be  so  easily 
surmounted.  Nor  will  the  chivalry  of  Carpathia,  nor  the  hussars 
of  Austria-Hungary,  nor  the  intrepid  Slavs  of  the  Peninsula,  be 
there  to  aid  the  Muscovite.  If  they  take  part,  they  will  probably 
side  with  the  Ottoman,  from  whom  they  have  had  more  privileges 
in  the  faith  and  more  liberties  in  the  state  than  other  races  have 
had  under  Muscovite  control.  If  Russia's  road  to  the  East,  as 
it  is  said,  lies  through  Vienna,  with  or  without  the  consent  of  Ger- 
many, the  Muscovite  will  never  travel  that  way  so  as  to  achieve 
domination  over  the  Bosporus. 

Whenever  Turkey  is  in  extremis,  and  when  the  Christian  nations, 
so-called,  begin  to  think  that  the  Alexanders  and  the  Gortchak- 
offs  are  the  especial  vicegerents  of  God,  to  conquer  or  suppress 
Turkey,  or  to  drive  its  race  out  of  Europe  into  Asia,  in  order  that 
the  Muscovite,with  his  peculiar  love  of  liberty  may  be  paramount 
— when  that  threatens,  there  is  one  desperate  resort.  It  is  like 
takmg  a  lighted  match  into  a  magazine  and  blowing  up  the  citadel. 
It  is  only  for  the  Sultan  to  do  as  he  did  when  once  before  Russia 
menaced  his  capital.     He  can  go  to  his  army,  raise  the  stand- 


MUSCOVITE,  OR  TURKf 


665 


ard  of  the  Caliphate  and  of  the  Sultanate,  and,  with  the  help  of 
Allah,  maintain  the  independence  of  the  Osmanli,  and  sacrifice,  if 
necessary,  his  life  to  the  honor  and  independence  of  his  country. 
It  is  difficult  to  discriminate  between  the  various  Sultans  who 
ruled  beneficently.  Those  who  had  the  best  intentions,  like 
Selim  the  Third,  were  short-lived.  Many  of  his  successors 
endeavored  to  carry  out  his  reforms.  They  found  it  impossible. 
But  whatever  may  be  said  as  to  these  rulers  and  the  character- 
istics  of  their  subjects,  nothing  can  equal  the  atrocities  of  the  Rus- 
sian in  Poland,  even  as  late  as  the  year  1863,  in  Central  Asia  as 
late  as  1875-76,  in  Siberia  at  all  times,  and  in  the  domain  of  the 
White  Czar,  in  which,  at  this  moment,  these  barbarities  are  oppres- 
sive and  infamous. 

So  that,  as  between  Muscovite  and  Ottoman,  if  there  be  a 
choice,  well-evidenced  by  tradition  and  history,  for  the  calamities 
it  has  brought,  the  Muscovite  bears  the  palm.  Our  sympathies 
in  America  are  misplaced,  if  they  regard  the  relation  of  Russia 
to  civilization  as  better  than  that  of  the  Turk. 

Take  one  element  of  social  order — that  of  religious  toleration 
and  libert)':  compare  the  religious  toleration  of  the  Turk  with  the 
cruel  persecutions  of  the  Hebrews  in  Russia  !  If  it  be  said  that 
the  Hebrew  is  justly  obnoxious  in  Russia,  and  in  many  nations 
besides  Russia — which  may  be  denied — let  me  state  that  in  trav- 
eling through  the  Danubian  principalities,  I  met  Protestant  and 
Lutheran  ministers  and  teachers  who  gave  such  accounts  of  the 
bigoted  Russian  atrocities  in  Poland  and  elsewhere  as  to  make 
the  darkest  year  of  the  Middle  Ages  bright  in  comparison.  From 
one  case,  learn  all.  Take  the  case  at  Revel,  in  Russia,  recently: 
There  were  some  ten  thousand  dollars  revenue  from  a  certain 
ecclesiastical  property.  It  was  held  by  trustees  for  the  l)enefit  of 
the  pastor  of  the  Lutheran  church,  and  the  expenses  of  Protestant 
worship.  The  council  was  compelled  by  the  Russian  government 
to  disgorge  this  money.  It  was  forbidden  to  give  any  more  help 
to  the  Lutheran  people.  What  benefit  do  the  Protestant  pastors 
receive  by  granting  them  the  empty  privilege  of  their  posts  with 
such  self-sacrifice.  They  only  contribute,  along  with  other  poor 
people,  to  the  common  suffering. 

As  between  the  Muscovite  and  Ottoman,  on  the  vital  issues 
of  civil  and  soul  liberty  there  can  be  but  one  verdict  among 
liberal  minds.      In  Russia,  it  is  said  that  her  philosophers  are 


666  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

theologians,  and  her  theologians  are  Cossacks.  In  Turkey  the 
philosophy  of  toleration  is  as  just  and  as  venerable  as  that  of  her 
first  great  Emperor,  Othman,  and  her  civil  functions  are  much 
less  hampered  and  corrupt  than  are  those  of  the  Northern  Auto- 
crat. 


CHAPTER    L. 

FIGHTING    BETWEEN   SERVIA   AND   BULGARIA — PRINCE  ALEXANDER. 

Before  the  autumn  of  1885  had  ended,  the  war  cloud  which 
hung  over  the  Balkan  provinces  seemed  to  vanish  under  the  con- 
trolling influence  of  the  Grand  Conference.  This  IxxJy  was  sit- 
ting from  day  to  day  and  week  to  week.  But  the  excitement  in 
Servia  and  in  Greece  grew  more  intense  as  it  appeared  that  Bul- 
garia would  likely  acquire  the  accession  of  East  Roumelia.  When, 
therefore,  in  the  middle  of  November,  a  fourth  meeting  of  the 
Conference  of  the  six  Powers  was  held,  although  secrecy  was 
enjoined,  much  transpired  to  show  that  the  broken  faith,  under  the 
Berlin  treaty,  had  not  been  altogether  healed.  The  Conference 
seemed  to  have  had  no  definite  result.  There  were  wide  differ- 
ences among  the  Powers.  These  differences  had  reference  to 
the  conditions  of  restoring  the  status  quo  ante.  Russia,  of  course, 
did  not  want  the  Balkan  barrier  between  her  and  a  southern  prog- 
ress toward  the  capital  of  Turkey  to  continue.  But  she  disliked 
Prince  Alexander  for  his  infidelity  to  the  Czar,  who  had  been 
vaunted  as  the  savior  of  Bulgaria  from  the  Turk,  and  the  leader 
of  the  Slav  element.  She  would  protect  and  patronize  the  Bul- 
garians and  the  Roumelians,  but  not  the  prince.  She  had  her 
own  latent  purposes. 

What  then  was  the  prospect  before  the  war  which  sprang  up 
between  Servia  and  Bulgaria  ? 

To  speak  in  the  present  tense,  it  is  n.arly  as  follows: 

Germany,  as  it  seems,  takes  part  with  Austria  and  Russia. 
What  England  means,  would  be  better  expressed  if  her  elections 
were  over.  Italy  seems  satisfied  to  be  with  France.  Both  lean 
toward  English  ideas.  These  relations  may  change  at  any 
moment,  and  because  of  new  movements,  dip'omatic  or  martial. 
Meanwhile — as  Mr.  Fearn,  the  United  States  Minister,  who  has 
been  sojourning  at  Bucharest  and  Belgrave,  and  is  en  romU  to 
Athens,  informs  me — Servia  is  not  quite  ready  for  a  conflict  with 

667 


668  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Bulgaria.  Still,  she  is  controlled  with  diflficulty.  Prince  Milan  is 
not  so  eager  as  his  people  to  leap  over  the  border  and  take  the 
Sandjaks  of  Widdin  and  Sophia,  which  Servia  claims  for  ethno- 
graphical and  historic  reasons. 

Greece,  like  Turkey,  is  still  arming.  Both  are  borrowing 
money.  Bankruptcy  impends;  but  out  of  these  embarrassments 
come  concessions  for  railroads,  so  that  enterprises  may  eventu- 
ally spring  out  of  these  evils.  At  present,  I  am  a  pessimist.  Mat- 
ters seem  clouded,  and  the  silver  lining  is  hardly  visible. 

Immediately  preceding  the  declaration  of  hostilities  between 
Servia  and  Bulgaria,  or,  I  may  say,  just  before  the  battle  of  Slev- 
nitza,  which  occurred  on  the  17th  of  November,  and  while  making 
calls  upon  the  Ministers  of  Servia,  Roumania  and  Greece,  along 
with  Mr.  Fearn — pur  Minister  to  these  countries— Mr.  Grouitch, 
the  Servian  Minister  informs  us  that  hostilities  have  begun  on 
Servian  soil.  An  attack  is  made  by  the  troops  of  Bulgaria  upon 
those  of  Servia  on  the  banks  of  the  Timok.  We  do  not  hear  fur- 
ther news  until  the  middle  of  November,  when  this  information 
is  reversed.  Then  telegrams  are  plentiful  from  Belgrave,  Sophia 
and  Nisch.  The  Servians  declare  war  against  the  principality. 
The  Servian  forces  at  once  enter  Bulgarian  territory.  They 
march  upon  Vratanitza.  The  king  of  Servia  and  the  prince  of 
Bulgaria  command  their  respective  armies.  The  scene  is  on 
and  near  the  frontier,  amid  mountains.  The  passes  are  defended 
by  soldiers  of  both  nations.  These  petty  conflicts  appear  small 
in  the  light  of  larger  events;  but  they  are  the  beginning  of  a  con- 
flict by  no  means  small  in  its  consequences. 

Diplomacy  is  staggered  by  the  declaration  of  war  and  the 
hostile  movements.  I  call  to  congratulate  Rustem  Pasha,  who 
has  just  been  appointed  Minister  to  England.  He  is  well  known 
in  the  East  as  the  excellent  ex-Governor  of  the  Lebanon. 
While  dining  with  the  Sultan  the  evening  before,  as  he  relates,  a 
telegram  comes  from  the  prince  of  Bulgaria.  It  asks  Otto- 
man aid. 

The  king  of  Servia  also  telegraphs  to  the  Porte,  asking  the 
Sultan's  support  against  Bulgaria.  The  Sultan  does  not  respond 
to  the  first  telegram;  and  what  his  answer  is  to  the  last,  has  not 
transpired. 

The  Balkan  question  is  swelling  beyond  its  banks  rapidly. 
These  telegrams  show  how  peculiai:  is  the  contest.    Two  Slav  prov- 


STOCKS  FLUCTUATE;  1- LAG  RANT  WAR.  669 

inces  seize  each  other  by  the  throat,  and  for  what  ?  Because  the 
one  has  broken  a  treaty  in  order  to  aggrandize  itself;  while  the 
other,  by  keeping  faith,  as  she  alleges,  does  not  come  by  her  own  ! 
As  the  quarrel  now  stands,  the  interests  of  Turkey  are  not  in 
jeopardy. 

The  Bourses  of  Europe  show  a  heavy  fall  in  certain  stocks, 
especially  Turkish  and  Greek.  Their  fall  is  •*  marked  by  spurts," 
as  these  financial  vicissitudes  demonstrate.  The  sound  of  the 
cannon  upon  these  belligerent  frontiers  reverberates  throughout 
Europe.  Was  it  not  Disraeli,  in  "  Vivian  Grey,"  who  said  that 
*•  there  is  nothing  like  a  fall  in  consols  to  bring  the  blood  of 
the  English  people  into  cool  order  ?  It  is  your  grand  state 
medicine,"  said  he,  "your  veritable  Dr.  Sangrado."  He  limits 
his  remark  to  the  people  of  England.  What  effect  this  fall  of 
securities  will  have  upon  the  more  excitable  people  of  the  south-. 
east  of  Europe,  time  will  develop. 

It  is  not  until  the  first  day  of  winter  that  authentic  news  comes 
of  the  result  of  the  battle  between  Servia  and  Bulgaria.  The  Bul- 
garian troops  under  the  prince,  after  a  struggle,  capture  Pirot, 
on  Servian  territory.  It  is  thought  that  he  will  enter  that  town 
on  that  day.  It  is  also  said  that  he  will  demand  the  Pirot  district 
Better  news  soon  arrives:  an  armistice  is  agreed  upon,  and  peace 
is  possible  !  Germaiiy,  Austria,  Russia  and  Turkey  have  coerced 
the  armistice. 

The  Powers  then  have  their  last  conference  on  the  Roumelian 
question.  All  outside  of  that  question  is  dehors.  There  may 
be  another  meeting  of  the  Conference  under  another  call,  but 
upon  other  and  more  comprehensive  questions.  The  Porte  has 
been  under  constant  anxiety.  As  soon  as  the  smoke  of  the  battle 
blows  away,  Lehib  Effendi,  accompanied  by  Gadban  Effendi,  in 
accordance  with  a  decision  of  the  Conference,  starts  for  Phillip- 
opolis.  They  are  to  investigate  the  condition  of  affairs  in  East 
Roumelia,  and  to  prepare  the  ground  for  the  arrival  of  an  Impe- 
rial commissioner. 

The  province  of  East  Roumelia  is  again  an  autonomous  prov- 
ince of  its  Suzerain.  Djevet  Pasha  is  the  president  of  the  com- 
mission. The  Conference  has  not  been,  after  all,  so  influential  in 
determining  matters.  It  was  rather  obstructive,  owing  to  the  atti- 
tude of  England.    It  was  the  war  which  brought  events  to  a  climax. 

There  is  nothing  during  these  two  months  of  anxiety  which 


6  yo  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

has  disastrously  affected  American  citizens.  The  trouble  we  have 
apprehended  for  Robert  College,  where  so  many  of  the  students 
are  Bulgarian,  owing  to  the  prudence  of  its  president,  is  averted. 
Nothing  happens  to  jeopard  its  interests.  The  Minister  of  In- 
struction informs  us  that  he  hears  that  the  Bulgarian  students  are 
drilling,  preparatory  to  joining  the  army  of  the  prince.  This  he 
subsequently  discovers  to  be  an  error,  and  so  the  Minister  of 
Instruction  is  content. 

Greece  is  likely  to  be  as  much  disappointed  as  Servia,  but  she 
is  not  humiliated  by  disasters  in  the  field,  and  will  not  be,  unless 
she  begins  hostilities.  Turkey  is  still  massing  troops  and  sending 
munitions  and  supplies  to  the  Greek  border. 

One  of  the  incidents  of  this  Roumelian  movement  is  the  sup- 
port given  to  Turkey  by  the  Christian  population  of  the  Ottoman 
.empire.  This  fact  negatives  a  good  deal  of  the  current  belief 
as  to  the  hostility  of  race  and  religion  within  the  Turkish  empire. 

The  winter  of  1885-86  is  not  passed  without  discontent  and 
apprehension.  As  spring  begins  to  dawn,  I  note  that  great  anxiety 
prevails  as  to  what  may  be  done  at  the  end  of  the  armistice.  This 
is  fixed  for  March  i.  1886.  Everywhere,  as  in  all  these  compli- 
cated troubles  in  the  Orient,  there  seems  to  be  a  threatening  lack 
of  confidence. 

In  observing  the  significant  political  movements  connected 
with  Turkey,  I  do  not  fail  to  observe  that  since  the  armistice 
began,  and  until  March  i,  1886,  there  is  also  a  threatening 
lack  of  confidence  between  the  great  Powers  themselves,  between 
Turkey  and  the  Powers,  and  between  Servia  and  Bulgaria. 
Mass-meetings,  the  press,  broils  and  collision  of  troops  are 
evidence  of  the  ill-feeling  between  the  small  Powers.  Servia  has 
been  vanquished.  Her  amour  propre  is  keenly  touched,  as  if  by 
caustic.  No  commissions,  military  or  civil,  no  lines  of  demarca- 
tion for  the  armies  of  occupation  at  Pirot  or  Widdin,  and  no  con- 
straint from  Russia,  Austria,  Germany  or  the  other  Powers,  are 
of  avail  to  quiet  the  unrest  or  dispel  the  distrust.  No  decision  is 
reached  as  to  peace;  or  as  to  the  place  where  future  conferences 
to  settle  the  vexed  questions  are  to  be  held.  Bulgaria  insists  on 
a  large  war  indemnity.  About  this  Servia  is  unwilling  to  treat. 
The  relations  of  suzerain  and  vassal  are  quite  faint  in  parts  of 
the  Peninsula,  and  the  responsibility  as  to  negotiations  is  there- 
fore either  divided  or  ignored  with  impunity.     The  Porte  urges 


IMPULSE  TO  LIBERTY,  FROM  AMERICA.  67 1 

upon  the  Powers  an  immediate  reassembling  of  the  Conference. 
The  Porte  would  stop  this  dubious  and  expensive  condition.  1  he 
armistice  only  temporarily  chloroforms  the  sensibilities  of  the 
late  belligerents.  The  Balkan  peninsula  is  quiescent  under  its 
snows  and  ills,  but  it  is  "on  compulsion."  The  armistice  is  only 
a  protraction  of  the  crisis.  No  demobilization  of  Ottoman  or  other 
troops  is  as  yet  possible.  In  fact,  mobilization  is  going  on,  with 
a  special  view  to  the  Greek  frontier.  A  strong  line  of  defensive 
works  has  been  completed  from  Catherina  to  Metzova,  in  case 
of  Greek  invasion  into  Macedonia  or  Epirus.  Salontca  seems 
now  ♦*  as  in  the  aforetime,"  a  point  of  strategetical  as  well  as  of 
commercial  importance. 

Against  these  movements  and  discouragements,  there  exists  a 
general  feeling  that  war  is  no  cure  of  wrongs  and  no  safeguard  of 
rights  ;  and  that  if  once  entered  upon,  it  would  induce  a  general 
conflagration,  involving  the  pre-eminent  Powers,  and  causing  end- 
less calamities.  After  all,  there  is  in  this  conflict  thus  opened,  and 
the  union  of  the  Bulgarian  provinces  and  people,  some  compensa- 
tion for  the  outlay  and  anxiety.  It  is  this  :  that  the  cause  of 
human  nature  and  of  popular  liberty  receives  in  East  Roumelia 
and  Bulgaria  a  grand  impulse.  That  impulse  is  not  bounded  by 
the  Danube  or  the  Balkans,  by  the  Adriatic  or  Black  seas.  Russia 
may  not  retard,  and  cannot  control  it.  By  perusing  the  history 
of  Bulgaria,  this  is  hardly  to  be  expected,  as  by  tradition,  race  and 
faith,  Bulgaria  is  akin  to  the  Slav  and  to  Russia. 

Owing  to  the  munificence  of  Mr.  Robert,  a  New  York  mer- 
chant, an  educational  edifice  arises  above  the  towers  of  Roumeli- 
Hissar,  on  the  Bosporus.  As  an  orator  said  on  its  dedication, 
"  It  rises  upon  higher  ground  than  these  Towers,  dominating  them 
spiritually  and  eternally."  It  becomes  the  home  of  scholarship, 
under  American  auspices  and  energy.  More  than  one-half  of  its 
scholars  have  been  and  are  Bulgarians.  As  their  education  pro- 
gresses, the  graces  of  cultivation  and  of  democratic-republi- 
can sympathy  ennoble  their  patriotic  devotion  ;  so  that  many  of 
the  officials  of  Bulgaria,  by  reason  of  superior  qualifications,  were 
and  are  of  and  from  this  American  institution.  'I'he  East  Rou- 
melian  revolution — though  an  infraction  of  the  Berlin  treaty,  it 
must  be  confessed — is  the  leaven  which  American  teaching  has 
infused  into  the  lump  of  Bulgarian  liberty. 

Looking  at  the  delays  m  diplomacy  since  the  18th  of  Septem- 


6/2  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPL  DMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

ber,  1885,  when  the  insurrection  began,  and  the  failure  to 
restore  the  status  quo  atite,  and  considering  the  other  dynastic, 
national,  provincial,  commercial  and  race  complications  since  that 
time,  it  seems  impossible  that  the  former  condition  of  things  should 
be  reinstated. 

It  is  not  necessary,  for  the  purposes  of  this  volume — intended 
as  a  Diversion  from  diplomatic  and  other  sedate  employment — 
that  I  should  rehearse  the  events  which  followed  the  annexation 
of  East  Roumelia  to  Bulgaria,  under  Prince  Alexander.  What 
harassments  he  encountered,  and  especially  from  Russia,  after 
his  peace  with  Servia  ;  what  obstacles,  notwithstanding  the  favor 
of  the  Sobranje  or  Congress,  and  the  good-will  of  the  people — 
these  are  graphically  summed  up  in  the  account  of  his  seizure, 
within  his  own  palace  at  Sophia,  by  Russian  emissaries,  and  his 
deportation  over  the  border,  with  every  mark  of  indignity.  In  a 
letter  to  his  sister,  the  Countess  Erbach,  written  before  his  last  tour 
through  East  Roumelia,  he  pictures  his  situation  as  that  of  a  stag 
hunted  on  all  sides. 

"  The  Bulgarians,"  he  says,  *'  have  little  heart,  and  to  satisfy 
them  seems  impossible.  To  be  threatened  again,  after  all  I  have 
done,  with  being  driven  away,  is  hard  and  unmerited.  Everything 
is  attributed  to  foreign  intrigues,  but  the  Bulgarians  are  old  enough 
to  distinguish  between  true  and  false  friends.  Nmety-nine  per 
cent,  of  the  Bulgarians  are  on  my  side  ;  the  remaining  i  per  cent, 
may,  however,  succeed,  with  the  help  of  Russia,  in  getting  rid  of 
me.  Until  the  revision  of  the  Organic  Statute — that  is,  till 
autumn — my  throne  will  be  like  a  dynamite  bomb.  In  any  case, 
I  shall  fall  fighting  ;  but  should  the  Bulgarians  prefer  foreign 
rule  to  an  honest  prince,  that  will  be  their  affair." 

What  estimate  the  present  or  the  future  may  place  upon  the 
services  of* Prince  Alexander  on  behalf  of  Bulgaria,  it  is  difficult 
to  determine.  There  is,  as  will  be  seen,  a  contrariety  of  opinion 
about  his  qualities  as  a  man  and  qualifications  as  a  ruler.  In 
fact,  even  his  skill  in  war,  which  was  manifested,  as  we  all  thought, 
with  singular  tact  and  courage,  is  somewhat  questioned.  Already 
his  experiences  in  Bulgaria  are  coming  from  the  press,  with  vari- 
ous comment.  The  best  impression  is,  that  he  was  a  better 
soldier  than  civilian.  His  worst  fault  is  that  he  tried,  but  failed  to 
placate  the  Czar.  This  will  not  be  treasured  against  him  by  any 
liberal  and  thoughtful    mind.     Along  with  the  portrait,   which 


PORTRAITURE  OF  PRINCE  ALEXANDER.  673 

graphically  shows  an  honest  and  handsome  face,  I  present  a  pen- 
picture  of  the  prince  from  Dr.  Roy's  volume,  just  published  at 
Paris.  This  description  was  written  at  the  moment  of  the  battle 
of  Slivnitza.     I  translate  it  thus  : 

"  He  is  thirty  years  of  age;  a  man  of  high  stature,  strongly 
defined  and  somewhat  stout.  The  head  is  regular  in  shape,  the 
nose  large  and  straight.  His  brown  beard  is  cut  h  la  Henry  IV., 
while  his  hair  is  of  a  darker  shade.  His  eyes  are  of  medium 
size,  brown  and  languishing.  They  reveal  no  special  vivacity. 
His  speech  is  engaging,  and  he  easily  gains  the  sympathy  of  his 
interlocutor.  He  impresses  one  favorably  by  the  manliness  of 
his  countenance  and  the  amiability  of  his  presence. 

"  But  the  prince  is  of  a  versatile  humor.  He  has  not  the 
frankness  nor  the  precision  of  a  soldier.  He  is  a  diplomat  who 
never  entangles  himself,  and  if  by  chance  he  has  been  carried 
away  or  excited  about  anything,  he  preserves  a  loop-hole  of 
escape.  His  politics  are  uncertain,  variable  and  full  of  reser- 
vations. 

"  It  appears,  from  the  most  accurate  information,  that  if  he 
gained  the  battle  of  Slivnitza,  it  is  because  he  had — a  good  horse. 
Believing  that  all  was  lost,  he  had  quitted  his  army  in  order  to 
return  to  Sophia,  and  it  was  during  this  abse.ice  that  the  Bulgarian 
troops  gained  the  victory  !" 

The  court  chaplain,  Mr.  Koch,  has  published  his  reminis- 
cences of  the  reign  of  the  prince.  He  begins  by  berating  the 
supporters  of  the  prince.  Herr  Koch  does  not  even  allude  to 
the  military  success  of  the  prince  at  Slivnitza;  nor  does  he  exalt 
the  ex-prince  unduly. 

It  seems,  from  these  chronicles,  that  the  prince  was  advised  of 
the  advent  of  the  revolution  in  East  Roumclia.  He  endeavored 
to  dissuade  the  committees  who  called  upon  him  from  embark- 
ing in  the  revolt.  He  was  surprised  at  his  farm  near  Varna  by 
the  event.  Karaveloff,  his  Minister,  was  not  to  l)e  found  when  the 
affair  happened.  All  of  which  goes  to  show  how  easily  the  Turk 
could  have  suppressed  the  rising. 

The  burden  of  this  book  of  the  chaplain  is  the  attachment 
and  fidelity  of  the  prince  to  Russia,  which,  if  true,  has  a  tendency 
among  true  Bulgarians,  to  destroy  the  very  niche  in  which  this 
hero  poses  so  statuesquely.  He  had  a  difficult  rdle  to  play, 
between   the  devil  of  a  Czar  and  the  deep  sea  of  diplomacy. 


6  74  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  m  TURKE  Y. 

What  renders  the  character  of  the  prince  still  more  ambiguous  is 
his  own  declaration,  as  revealed  by  this  intimate  friend,  that 
Prince  Milan's  revengeful  policy  was  justifiable — "not  unde- 
served by  Bulgaria." 

Doubtless  he  had  the  good-will  and  enthusiasm  of  his  troops, 
and  a  fair  appreciation  of  the  absurd  attitude  of  these  two 
little  Powers  clutching  at  each  other,  when  under  the  shadow  of 
the  great  throne  of  the  Czar. 

How  the  prince  was  abducted  by  the  Russians — and,  owing  to 
the  perfidy  of  his  own  troops,  successfully  abducted — it  is  well  to 
quote  Prince  Alexander's  own  vivid  words  : 

"On  August  21  I  had  been  working  far  into  the  night,  and 
had  scarcely  fallen  asleep  when  I  was  awakened  by  a  noise  that 
reached  me  from  my  passage  before  my  bedroom.  It  might  have 
been  i :  30.  The  next  moment  Dimitri-,  my  Bulgarian  servant, 
burst  into  the  room,  trembling  and  quaking  in  every  limb. 
He  cried,  'You  are  betrayed;  they  mean  to  murder  you.  Fly 
before  it  is  too  late  ! '  I  sprang  out  of  bed  and  seized  my 
revolver.  Then  I  heard  the  military  word  of  command,  and 
breathed  more  easily.  I  said  to  Dimitri,  'I  am  saved;  the  mili- 
tary is  there.'  But  he,  still  trembling,  ejaculated,  *  No,  fly;  it. 
is  the  soldiers,  who  mean  to  kill  you.'  Then  I  rushed,  in  my 
shirt,  to  the  door  leading  into  the  garden,  but  as  I  opened 
it  I  was  met  by  firing.  Immediately  after,  I  heard  shots  on  all 
sides.  I  went  from  here  through  the  dark  corridor  toward  the 
servants'  wing,  and  up  the  first  story  into  the  winter  garden, 
to  obtain  a  bird's-eye  view,  and  see  if  it  were  still  possible  to 
escape.  Up  there  it  was  so  dark  that  I  could  not  see  my  hand 
before  my  eyes,  but  from  the  line  of  fire  of  the  soldiers  shooting 
below,  I  found  that  the  whole  palace  was  surrounded,  and  it  was 
useless  to  think  of  escape.  The  shower  of  bullets  permitted  no 
doubt  as  to  the  serious  nature  of  the  situation." 

That  he  persisted  in  refusing  to  return  to  the  throne  from 
which  he  was  forcibly  ousted,  and  which  he  had  been  urgently 
invited  to  resume,  is  not  surprising.  As  a  consequence  of  this 
gap  in  the  government,  and  the  failure  to  find  a  prince,  under  and 
according  to  the  Berlin  treaty,  the  regency  began  to  accomplish 
what  they  could  to  allay  excitement  and  preserve  order.  This 
they  have  done  admirably. 

The  facts  in  reference  to  the  revolt  and  annexation  have,  as 


EPITOME  OF  THE  SITUATJOX. 


675 


revealed  in  the  latest  and  best  lights,  from  German,  Austrian, 
Russian  and  Turkish  sources,  are  these  : 

First :  Prince  Alexander  was  not  present  at  Sophia,  but  on  his 
farm  near  Varna,  on  the  i8th  of  September,  when  the  rising  took 
place,  and  when  he  was  advised  by  Karaveloff  of  the  fact. 

Second :  He  was  not  in  favor  of  the  rising.  He  gave  it  no 
encouragement.  It  was  not  his  work.  It  was  a  surprise  to  him. 
He  acquiesced  in  it  ;  and  why  ? 

Third:  Because  he  was  caught  in  a  dilemma.  He  had  to 
choose  between  accepting  the  new  situation,  or  leave  Bulgaria 
under  its  indignation. 

Fourth :  This  dilemma  was  prepared  as  a  trap  for  him  by 
Russian  emissaries.  The  Czar  disliked  him,  and  thought  to  force 
his  exit  by  presenting  him  the  alternative  of  favoring  the  union 
with  East  Roumelia,  and  thus  allow  Russian  influences  below  the 
Balkans,  or  of  abdicating.  He  disappointed  Russia  by  remain- 
ing, and  becoming. the  popular  and  military  idol. 

Fifth  :  Russia — being  disappointed — made  a  merit  of  vindi< 
eating  the  Berlin  treaty,  which  the  revolution  that  she  had  fos- 
tered had  flagrantly  repudiated. 

Sixth :  By  these  complications  and  indignities,  Russia — being 
herself  entrapped — was  compelled  to  resort  to  all  the  devices, 
intrigues  and  protests  of  her  diplomacy,  by  which,  covertly  and 
openly,  she  has  foiled  Prince  Alexander,  harassed  the  regency, 
rejected  the  Sobranj^  and  its  election  of  Prince  Ferdinand,  and 
menaced  his  tenure  of  office,  and  the  peace  and  order  of  the 
united  provinces. 

During  the  existence  of  the  recent  struggle,  there  has  been 
no  bloodshed  laid  at  the  door  of  Turkey.  The  drain  on  her 
exchequer  has  been  met.  There  has  been  no  interruption  of 
commerce.  Scarcely  can  we  record  one  act  leading  to  a  change 
in  boundary  or  rule;  and  no  convulsion  either  on  account  of 
religion  or  politics.  Turkey  sits  serenely,  yet  not  without 
observation,  upon  the  old  ways  of  international  intercourse  and 
national  conquest — as  yet  under  the  control  of  no  other  Power, 
while  discreetly  and  diplomatically  deferring  to  all.  She  pre- 
serves her  independence,  and  is  regarded  as  a  part  of  that  Con- 
cert whose  dread  responsibilities  are  not  unknown  even  in  the 
interior  of  Asia,  and  in  the  wilds  of  Africa,  as  well  as  in  Western 
Europe. 


CHAPTER  LI. 

RESIGNATION     AS    MINISTER — RETURN    HOME — PRINCE     FERDINAND 
— FRESH    EVENTS — HOROSCOPE   OF   THE    EAST — CONCLUSION. 

During  the  summer  of  1887  the  writer  enjoyed  a  recreative 
sojourn  upon  one  of  the  Princes  Isles.  At  Prinkipo  he  was  not 
distant  from  the  sphere  of  active  diplomacy,  which  had  no  sur- 
cease during  the  summer  and  fall.  Circumstances,  partly  domestic 
and  partly  political,  led  him  to  resign  his  office  as  Minister,  and 
to  return  home  to  resume  his  former  position  as  a  Member  d!' 
Congress  from  the  city  of  New  York.  Why  he  made  this  change, 
it  may  not  be  entirely  uninteresting  to  state.  It  was  not  because  of 
any  dissatisfaction  with  the  service,  nor  from  any  derogative 
treatment  by  the  officers  of  the  Porte  or  the  Sultan,  nor  because 
of  any  disenchantment  of  the  Orient,  as  this  volume,  and  another 
upon  the  "Pleasures  of  Prinkipo,"  enthusiastically  demonstrate. 
The  heart  has  no  reason;  or,  rather,  it  has  reasons  of  its  own. 
Call  it  home-sickness,  or  patriotism,  or  an  inclination  after  old 
and  fixed  parliamentary  habits,  or  the  ineradicable  desire  to  be 
near  one's  own — and  you  have  the  best  explanation  that  can  Jae 
made  for  my  premeditated  and  unprecipitate  return.  I  had  done 
all  that  a  Minister  of  my  ability  could  do,  to  place  the  Legation 
and  the  American  interests  in  excellent  condition.  The  treaties 
pending  during  the  service  of  my  predecessors — Messrs.  Boker, 
McVeigh,  Longstreet,  Maynard  and  Wallace — I  had  the  honor  to 
consummate  with  the  approbation  of  all  these  Ministers,  except 
that  of  Mr.  Mayn?rd,who  had  died;  and  under  the  instructions 
and,  as  I  supposed,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  President  and  the 
Department  of  State.  What  more  was  there  for  me  to  do  in 
Turkey,  unless  I  gave  up  the  animus  reverteiidi  altogether  ?  What 
remained  could  easily  be  accomplished  by  others  of  tact,  pro- 
bity and  vigilance. 

With  the  consent  of  the  President,  kindly  accorded,  I  returned 
to  America  in  the  fall  of  1887,  and  re-entered  upon  my  old  career 

■    676 


iKi.NCE  ALKXANDER  OF  BATTENBERG. 

CZAR  OF  RUSSIA. 


DINANU  OF  COBURG. 


677 


678  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

as  a  Member  of  the  Forty-Ninth  Congress,  from  which  I  had 
resigned  to  go  abroad;  and  as  the  Member-elect  of  the  Fiftieth 
Congress,  to  which  I  had  been  returned  at  the  same  election. 

These  duties,  distant  from  the  scenes  and  Diversions  which 
I  have  endeavored  herein  to  portray,  did  not  withdraw  nor  blind 
my  mind  from  the  observation  of  the  exciting  events  of  the 
Orient,  and  the  vital  problems  still  agitating  the  Powers  and 
vehemently  pressing  for  solution.  The  regency  in  Bulgaria  held 
its  own  with  remarkable  and  patriotic  tenacity.  The  Russian 
efforts  to  create  trouble  and  rebellion  in  Bulgaria,  through  the 
arrogant  intervention  of  General  Kaulbars;  the  complete  abdica- 
tion of  Prince  Alexander;  the  struggles  of  the  province  and  of  the 
Powers  to  place  an  eligible  prince  on  the  throne — these  are  fresh 
incidents  of  current  history.  The  tremulousness  of  the  Continental 
equilibrium  occasioned  by  the  jarring  interests  of  England,  Aus- 
tria and  Russia,  and  the  designs  of  the  other  "  signatories,"  have, 
contrary  to  expectation,  left  Bulgaria  m  a  quasi  unity  with  her 
annexed  neighbor,  which  Turkey  did  not  seek  to  break,  and  free 
from  the  open  and  active  attacks,  either  by  diplomacy  or  arms,  of 
any  policy  of  compulsion  from  other  potential  quarters. 

Various  events  have  contributed  to  keep  the  peace  and  pre- 
serve the  autonomy  of  the  united  provinces.  Servia  has  not 
forgotten  the  lesson  which  Slivnitza  and  the  bayonet  taught.  Her 
Prince  Milan  and  his  beautiful  Queen  Nathalie  have  been  almost 
divorced,  as  well  by  domestic  infelicity  as  by  the  partiality  of 
the  former  for  Austria,  and  the  latter  for  Russia.  Servia  there- 
fore still  remains  neutralized,  if  not  Austrianized. 

Greece,  where  the  flame  of  Hellenic  pride  swept  the  classic 
blue  sky  with  lurid  glare,  has,  under  the  new  ministry  of  Tricoupis, 
given  her  sedate  and  solid  energies  to  the  relief  of  her  exchequer 
and  her  taxed  people,  and  to  the  arts  of  good  neighborhood  and 
prosperity.  Her  king,  who  is  at  once  affable  and  sage,  has  not 
been  remiss  in  cultivating  these  amicable  relations,  which  betoken 
a  wise  successor  of  the  historic  names  of  her  splendid  history. 

Albania, Epirus  and  Macedonia  have  been  learning  how  much 
better  it  is  to  be  reliant  on  their  own  resources  and  rule,  rather 
than  by  reaching  out  after  the  illusory  nebulae  of  ethnographical 
conditions,  which  cultivate  no  olives  and  grain,  pay  off  no  mort- 
gages, and  support  no  families. 

England  has  endeavored,  with  one  foot  on  Egypt  and  the 


XUSSIAN-  AND  ENGLISH  CONFLICT.  679 

Other  on  India,  to  fix  by  treaty  the  right,  in  case  she  evacuates 
the  Nile,  to  re-occupy  it  when  there  shall  occur  certain  emergen- 
cies affecting  the  canalization  of  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  and  the 
material  prosperity  and  political  order  of  Egypt.  Failing  to  make 
such  conditions  with  Turkey,  she  makes  a  neutralization  conven- 
tion with  France;  but  she  continues  to  occupy  Egypt.  She  will 
so  continue,  so  long  as  Russia  threatens  to  compete  with  her  in 
the  struggle  for  Asiatic  dominion. 

Russia  constructs  her  trans-Caspian  railways  upon  strategetic 
lines,  to  concentrate,  in  some  near  future,  her  military  strength 
upon  Herat,  or  by  water  to  transport  her  armies  and  supplies  to 
those  mountainous  frontiers  which  open  their  sublime  gorges 
through  Hindu-Kush  into  the  heart  of  India.  Water  has  been 
drawn  from  the  desert  around  Merv,  and  fuel  from  the  oil  wells  of 
Baku;  pipes,  naphtha,  canals  and  the  very  vegetation  of  the  far-off 
and  far-famed  hive  of  Central  Asia,  have  been  harnessed  into 
locomotive  forces  to  finish  her  1,000  miles  of  railroad  wherewith 
to  bind  the  Caspian  with  the  Oxus,  and  re-establish  the  ancient 
Capital  of  Tamerlane — "  Silken  Samarcand."  Russia  is  already 
thundering  at  the  outer  gates  of  the  British  empire.  Her 
inimitable  thunder  is  not  heard  so  much  by  the  Western  Powers 
as  by  the  Ameers  and  other  rulers  of  Asia;  but  England  knows 
what  it  means,  and  may  well  tremble  for  her  supremacy  in  the 
East. 

This  remote  contest  has  never  obliterated  from  Russia  the 
ambitious  visions  of  Peter  the  Great,  Catharine  and  Nicholas. 
These  visions  can  only  find  full  realization  by  making  Old  Byzan- 
tium the  ecclesiastical  and  secular  capital  of  her  continental  and 
imperial  magnificence.  As  Constantine  conquered  by  the  sign  of 
the  Cross  in  the  sky,  so  Russia  expects  dominion  by  the  obscur- 
ation of  the  Crescent  of  her  ancient  Ottoman  enemy. 

This  programme  finds  many  obstacles  to  its  accomplishment. 
The  alliance  between  Germany,  Austria  and  Russia  no  longer 
exists,  so  as  to  aid  in  the  performance  of  this  rdle.  Austria— 
whether  allowed  by  Germany  or  not — now  begins  to  assert  herself 
as  against  Russian  schemes.  Her  sagacious  em{)eror  and  his  able 
counselors  consult  the  material  interests  of  his  diverse  peoples. 
They  es|5ecially  regard  the  trade  and  commerce  of  those  who  live 
along  the  Danube  and  the  Adriatic,  and  who  are  reaching  out  for 
markets    and    enterprises,  as  well    by   her   Lloyds    and    other 


6  8o  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  V. 

Steamers  as  by  the  system  of  railroads  projected  in  the  Balkan 
peninsula,  and  whose  termini  are  at  Varna  and  Salonica.  The 
traditional  mission  of  the  Austro- Hungarian  people  lies  in  these 
directions  of  potential  commerce  and  dynastic  rule. 

The  Berlin  treaty  allowed  Austria  to  occupy  Herzegovina  and 
Bosnia.  Servia  is  almost  ripe  for  annexation  to  her  double  crown 
without  protest  from  the  Kaiser  or  his  Chancellor.  Germany, 
to-day,  holds  the  balance,  or,  rather,  she  places  the  jeweled  and 
victorious  sabre  in  the  scales  to  determine  these  grave  eventualities. 

*'  Why,  then,"  you  ask  "  did  she  not  protect  Prince  Alexander 
on  his  throne  ?  "  Perhaps,  because  he  was  not  entirely  suited  to 
the  situation;  or  because  his  military  feather  was  rather  too  pre- 
tentious, and  the  enmity  of  the  Czar  too  pronounced  and  bitter 
toward  this  prince,  for  the  continuance  of  the  harmony  at  that 
time  prevalent  between  Germany  and  Russia. 

After  a  long  hiatus — after  scouring  the  world  from  the  Rhine 
to  the  Caucasus — Bulgaria,  in  defiance  of  the  Berlin  treaty,  selects 
a  prince.  It  is  Prince  Ferdinand.  Whence  comes  this  prince  ? 
Is  he  of  faery-land  ?  What  supernal  spirit  supplies  the  audacity 
thus  to  accept  a  battered  crown  in  derogation  and  defiance  of  the 
Great  Bear  ? 

If  it  comes  to  a  prodigious  pedigree  and  royal  blood,  this  prince 
combines  enough  to  double  the  size  of  the  Gotha  Almanach. 
His  genealogical  ramification  reaches  deep  into  the  nadir  and 
mounts  high  into  the  zenith.  It  is  English,  German,  Portuguese, 
French,  Belgian,  Danish,  Brazilian  and  Austrian.  Since  he 
has  grown  in  our  esteem  by  his  prudence  and  pluck,  may  I  be  al- 
lowed to  place  his  portrait  in  this  volume  between  the  antagonis- 
tic Alexanders — the  ex-Prince  of  Bulgaria  and  the  Emperor 
of  Russia?  Besides,  since  he  is  to  play  such  an  eminent  part — 
until  it  please  the  Powers  to  issue  a  prescript  otherwise — let  us 
ponder,  in  behalf  of  the  harassed  and  infant  principality,  the  con- 
sanguinity which  Ferdinand  bears  to  all  the  royalties. 

Prince  Ferdinand,  born  in  1861,  is  the  son  of  the  late  Prince 
Augustus  of  Coburg-Kohary,  and  the  grandson  of  Prince  Ferdi- 
nand, uncle  of  the  reigning  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  Ernest  II. 
His  grandfather's  brother,  Leopold,  ascended  the  throne  of  Bel- 
gium in  1 83 1,  and  was  succeeded  on  it  in  1865  by  his  son  Leo- 
pold II.,  the  reigning  king.  Ernest  II.'s  brother,  Albert,  married 
Queen  Victoria  in  1840,  and  in  1841  became  father  of  the  Prince 


PEDIGREE  OF  PRINCE  FERDLWAXD.  68 1 

of  Wales,  the  heir  apparent  to  the  throne  of  Great  Britain.  Prince 
Augustus's  brother,  Ferdinand,  married  in  1836  Maria  da  Gloria, 
Queen  of  Portugal,  daughter  of  the  Emperor  of  Brazil,  Pedro  I., 
and  in  1837  became  father  of  the  late  King  of  Portugal,  Pedro  V., 
and  in  1838  of  the  present  King,  Dom  Luis.  Prince  Ferdinand's 
mother.  Princess  Clementina,  is  the  daughter  of  Louis  Philippe, 
king  of  the  French  in  1830-48,  and  the  aunt  of  the  Comte  dc 
Paris,  who  now  unites  in  his  person  the  pretensions  to  the  throne 
of  France  of  both  the  elder  and  younger  (or  Orleans)  l)ranch  of 
the  House  of  Bourbon.  Clementina's  sister,  Louise  of  Orleans, 
was  the  consort  of  Leopold  L  of  Belgium.  Clementina's  brother, 
the  Due  de  Montpensier,  is  the  husband  of  the  Infanta  Ixiuisa, 
sister  of  the  ex-Queen  Isabella  II.  of  Spain,  and  aunt  of  the  late 
King  Alfonso  XII.,  father  of  the  present  infant  King  Alfonso  XIII. 
Clementina's  nephew,  Gaston  of  Orleans,  Comte  d'Eu,  son  of  her 
brother,  the  Due  de  Nemours,  married  in  1864  Isabella,  daughter 
of  Pedro  II.  of  Brazil,  and,  as  his  only  living  child,  heiress  appar- 
ent to  the  throne.  Another  son  of  the  Due  de  Nemours,  the  Due 
d'Alen^on,  married  \n  1868  the  Bavarian  Princess  Sophia,  sister 
of  the  Empress  of  Austria.  The  Comte  de  Paris's  daughter, 
Amdlie,  was  in  1886  married  to  the  Duke  of  Braganza,  Crpwn- 
Prince  of  Portugal.  Princess  Marie,  daughter  of  Due  de  Chartres, 
brother  of  the  Comte  de  Paris,  was  married  in  1885  to  Pnnce 
Waldemar,  son  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  brother  of  the  King  of 
Greece,  and  brother-in-law  of  the  Czar  of  Russia  and  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales.  Of  Prince  Ferdinand's  two  brothers,  one  mar- 
ried a  daughter  of  Leopold  II.  of  Belgium,  and  the  other  a  daugh- 
ter, now  deceased,  of  Pedro  II.  of  Brazil.  Of  his  two  sisters,  one 
was  married  to  Archduke  Joseph,  a  second-cousin  of  the  Emperor 
of  Austria,  and  the  other  to  Duke  Maximilian,  brother  of  the 
Empress  of  Austria. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  confusing  array  of  the  blucst-bloodcd 
royalty,  Ferdinand  does  not  please  Russia  Xon  constat,  but 
that  he  may  please  Germany,  England  and  Italy;  and  certainly 
Austria.  If  not  avowedly,  yet  covertly,  Austria  props  his  romantic 
though  doubtful  establishment,     Bulgaria  seems  content. 

Why  not  ?  Already,  out  of  his  own  full  purse  the  Prince 
is  generously  aiding  in  the  completion  of  the  railways  of  Bul- 
garia, to  which  that  government  is  pledged.  The  election  in 
October,  1887,  shows  only  twenty-seven  Russophiles  to  200  patri- 


682  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMA  T  IN  TURKE  Y. 

Otic  Bulgars  elected  to  the  Sobranje;  and  as  Bulgaria  is  pleased 
with  the  prince,  and  does  not  yet  seek  to  be  an  independent  repub- 
lic, whose  business  is  it  to  interfere  ? 

France  seeks  alliance  with  Russia,  and  has  tendered  to  the 
Porte  guaranties  against  further  English  encroachments  and 
permanency  m  Egypt.  In  this,  the  republic  of  M.  Grevyhas  the 
sympathy  of  the  emperor  Alexander.  Russia  returns  the  cor- 
diality of  France  ;  and  Germany,  ever  alert,  makes  a  threatening 
note  of  the  strange  entente  cordiale  between  Cossack  and  repub- 
lican. Russia,  therefore,  receives  a  counterblast  in  Berlin  on  the 
Boerse,  and  in  Bulgaria  from  Bismarck.  Turkey  is  thereby 
encouraged,  as  she  always  is,  by  the  jealousies  and  collisions  of 
the  great  Powers  ;  and  resolves  to  stand  loyally  by  the  Berlin 
treaty.  To  stand  ?  Yes  ;  but  to  make  a  move  ?  No.  Without 
a  move,  what  avails  the  impossible  coup  dethMtre  called  "  the  res- 
toration of  the  status  quo  ante  "  ? 

These  events  look  to  the  retention  of  Prince  Ferdinand.  The 
purchase  of  200,000  repeating  rifles  by  the  plucky  little  Power 
gives  much  meaning  to  the  situation.  Prince  Alexander  abdicated 
because  the  Czar  was  inimical  to  him  personally,  if  not  otherwise. 
Prince  Ferdinand  holds  on,  despite  the  frowns  of  Russia  and  the 
hostility  of  France. 

With  her  other  and  vast  schemes,  how  can  Russia  make  war 
upon  Bulgaria  or  upon  Ferdinand  ?  If  she  does,  the  war  will  not 
be  of  that  insidious  insolence  and  domestic  limitation  which  Kaul- 
bars  attempted  to  provoke.  Will  Abdul  Hamid,  with  his  views  of 
a  Juste  ini'lieu,  veto  the  election  of  this  prince  to  gratify  the  old 
enemy  of  Turkey  ?  Will  Russia  seek  compensation  for  its  fail- 
ure on  the  Balkans  by  taking  the  remnant  of  Armenia  from  the 
Sultan  ?  Dare  Russia,  in  the  face  of  her  bankrupt  treasury  and 
her  dynamitic  Nihilists,  strike  down  the  little  principality  which  is 
struggling  to  be  autonomous  and  free  ? 

However  these  questions  may  be  answered — which  one  of  the 
six  Powers  is  to  be  aggrandized  or  humiliated  by  the  result, 
whenever  any  change  takes  place — Turkey  is  to  be  the  victim. 
She  is  dressed  with  ribbons  and  flowers  for  the  sacrifice.  The 
Balkans  are  the  pawns  on  the  board  to  be  moved  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  dynastic  ambition.  Why  should  this  be  so  ?  Is  there 
disorder  in  Bulgaria  or  East  Roumelia  ?  No!  Is  there  a  lack  of 
firmness  at  the  palace  of  Yildiz  or  at  the  Porte  ?     If  so,  it  is  not 


LATEST  PHASE  OF  THE  IMBROGUO.  68 1 

shown.  Is  Turkey  to  be  partitioned  and  Bulgaria  to  be  Russian- 
ized, in  our  day  and  generation,  without  a  struggle  ?  Are  there 
no  factors  to  countervail  these  schemes  and  safeguard  the  people 
of  the  smaller  states  ?  Yes  :  the  united  Balkan  states,  Austro- 
Hungary,  and  the  Sultan  as  the  Caliph  of  Mahometanism — these 
three  elements  of  strength,  along  with  the  regenerated  humani- 
ties and  liberties  of  our  age,  can  master  the  situation  without  the 
active  alliance  of  England,  Italy  and  Germany. 

The  step  taken  by  Prince  Ferdinand  must  have  been  coun- 
tenanced by  Austria.  It  seem  to  have  received  the  acquiescent 
regard  of  Germany.  No  armed  intervention  by  Russia  will  be 
brooked.  The  great  danger  is  from  that  Machiavelism  in  which 
the  Muscovite  excels,  and  as  to  the  practices  of  which  there  is, 
on  her  part,  no  fluttering  impatience  or  cessation. 

Last  month — October,  1887 — Russia  prepared  to  foment  dis- 
turbances in  Bulgaria  by  renewing  the  Kaulbars  tactics.  She 
sought  Turkish  assistance  in  favor  of  her  General  Emoth  as  a 
commissioner  to  regulate  the  recent  elections.  The  Porte  fought 
shy  of  the  device.  It  failed.  By  its  failure  Ferdinand  becomes 
more  securely  seated  upon  his  throne.  He  is  no  longer  called 
the  "reckless,  foolish  Ferdinand."  He  seems  to-day  to  be  sur- 
rounded by  a  devoted  nation,  which,  if  not  great  m  numbers  and 
area,  is  courageous  in  action,  and  may  in  the  outcome  succeed  in  its 
aspirations  for  self-government,  despite  the  wiles  of  diplomacy 
and  the  forces  of  autocracy. 

The  present  position  of  the  matter  at  Constantinople  was 
considered  less  than  a  month  ago,  at  a  special  cabinet  council. 
Its  mazbata  was  certified  to  the  Imperial  Chancellery  in  the  form 
of  a  reply  to  Germany.  Its  tenor  was  that — Russia  excepted — 
none  of  the  Powers  had  formulated  a  solution  of  the  Bulgarian 
imbroglio,  and  that  the  Russian  proposition  of  intervention  along 
with  Turkey,  was  not  approved  by  the  Porte.  It  was  only  sul)mittcd 
to  Germany  with  a  view  to  the  intervention  of  the  latter,  J  hire 
facultatif.  Germany  was  sought  by  the  Porte  .-.s  the  medium  to 
reach  all  the  Powers  for  a  solution  ;  the  Porte  still  adhering  to 
its  idea  maintained  since  September,  1885,  that  the  Berlin  treaty 
should  be  maintained  in  its  integrity.  The  Porte,  however, 
promises  adhesion  to  the  decision  of  the  Powers.  This  means 
delay,  discussion  and  disagreement.  Meanwhile  Russia  is  foiled, 
and  Ferdinand  becomes  every  day  more  and  more  "  a  fixed  fact" 


684  DIVERSIONS  OF  A  DIPLOMAT  IN  TURKEY. 

What  the  Powers  may  do,  by  sheer  force  and  by  selfish  nego- 
tiations, when"  they  next  meet  in  conference,  is  not  clear.  All 
prophecies  may  fail.  The  ulterior  motive  of  Russia  to  control  or 
capture  Constantinople,  with  its  prosperous  commerce  and  domi- 
nating position,  surely  cannot  receive  encouragement.  It  is  an 
impossibility.  Turkey  has  shown  extraordinary  force  of  arms 
and  activity  of  movement,  sufficient  self-confidence  and  opposi- 
tion to  self-effacement,  to  make  her  position  respected,  and,  so 
far,  sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  the  peace. 

What  will  be  the  finality  of  these  complications  with  such  far- 
reaching  results,  is  indicated  by  the  events  every  day  transpir- 
ing. Whether  the  pivot  be  in  Persia,  Armenia,  Egypt,  Bulgaria, 
Macedonia,  Afghanistan  or  India,  the  most  momentous  crisis 
known  since  the  fall  of  Constantinople  in  a.  d.  1453,  or  certainly 
since  the  fall  of  Sebastopol,  impends  imminently  over  the  great 
ruling  Powers  and  peoples  of  three  continents. 

What  may  be  the  horoscope  of  the  Orient,  cannot  be  read  in 
its  serene  stars  or  by  its  astrological  professors.  Indeed,  it  puz- 
zles the  best  rational  prescience  of  the  Occident — quickened  by 
the  sense  of  self-interest  and  the  sensibility  of  ambition.  But  the 
world  has  progressed  too  far  on  lines  of  light  and  liberty,  to  resign 
itself  to  the  control  of  a  Power  like  that  of  Russia — a  Power 
loaded  at  home  with  debt  and  goaded  by  despair,  and  every- 
where, at  home  and  abroad,  challenged  by  protests  against  its 
conduct  and  continuance. 

On  the  contrary,  the  Padishah  of  the  Ottoman  state — ^the 
Pontiff  of  the  Mahometan  faith — is  emerging  from  the  eclipse 
of  the  last  few  decades.  By  energizing  and  elevating  his  people; 
by  the  revival  of  education  and  religion;  by  advancing  his  sub- 
jects in  the  arts  of  a  new  civilization — he  prepares  the  very  ele- 
ments that  are  tempestuously  raging  around  his  throne  and  capi- 
tal, to  become  the  allies  of  his  personal  strength  for  the  durability 
of  his  rule.  In  the  words  of  his  father,  Abdul  Medjid,  he  would 
•'  make  the  political,  civil  and  religious  conditions  so  equal 
between  Mussulman  and  Christians  of  every  denomination 
throughout  the  empire,  that  there  no  longer  would  be,  under  the 
laws  of  the  Sultan,  but  one  and  the  same  people  under  different 
races  and  religions.  In  a  word,  to  nationalize  all  the  fragments 
of  nations  that  cover  the  soil  of  Turkey  by  so  much  impartiality, 
amenity,  equality  and  toleration,  that  each  of  these  populations 


THE  DESTINY  OF  THE  OTTOMAN  EMPIRE. 


685 


should  find  its  honor,  its  conscience,  its  security,  interested  in 
concurring  toward  the  maintenance  of  the  empire  in  a  species  of 
monarchical  confederation  under  the  auspices  of  the  Sultan." 

In  endeavoring  to  realize  th  s  ideal  of  his  father,  the  present 
Padishah  excites  the  admiration  and  subserves  the  interests  of 
mankind.  His  people  will  shake  off  the  incubus  of  "destiny."  As 
Lamartine  once  said  to  Abdul  Medjid,  when  he  was  the  guest  of 
that  Sultan  at  the  beautiful  kiosk  of  Fhlamour : 

"The  fatalism  of  your  race  and  religion  will  become  the  fatal- 
ism of  heroes — which  determines  its  own  destiny." 

THE   END. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


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